[dropcap]F[/dropcap]inally after a long time, former Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, spoke on notes ban in parliament debate and his speech was truly uplifting and nobody could have put the sham of demonetisation in better words. It’s going to be difficult for Modi to counter such a speech with logic. Dr Singh, a reputed economist, opened the debate in the Rajya Sabha on demonetisation on behalf of his party, the Congress. He said that while he cannot presume to know “the final outcome,” agricultural and economic growth will be dented by the PM’s sudden cancellation on November 8 of the high-denomination currency. After chaos, even Prime Minister Narendra Modi was to be present in parliament as his step to abolish Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes was labelled as a monumental management failure. The GDP of the country would decline by about 2 per cent by what has been achieved. And this is an underestimate and not an overestimate, pointed out by Singh. Since the winter session of parliament began last week, the opposition has attacked the government for failing to anticipate the shortage of cash that has eclipsed the country since the notes were cancelled with just a few hours of notice.
Opposition leaders have been demanding a statement from the PM, while the government, till today, said Finance Minister Arun Jaitley would present the government’s explanation. But that explanation was more of an attack than a clarification. The BJP government says that 88 billion dollars of old notes have been deposited in banks since the ban was called, and that new Rs. 500 and Rs. 2,000 notes are being supplied every day to banks, where the serpentine lines of last week have now substantially decreased. However, in rural India people have been suffering more hardships than their urban counterparts. With limited or no access to banks, farmers are sowing their winter crop. The shortage of cash may turn the situation into a crisis. The government has announced urgent measures to help farmers, like allocating Rs. 21,000 crores to state-lender NABARD to dispense loans. The government has also indicated that while it expects a contraction of growth for a quarter, it is prepping a big investment push as compensation. Dr. Singh’s speech was preceded by sparring between opposition leaders and the Finance Minister, who said that the former PM’s comments should be made once the debate was formally initiated.
Earlier, in an emotive speech delivered after his announcement, PM Modi had asked for “just 50 days” to complete his crackdown on black money. Then later on Modi conducted a survey, through his own app, and thanked people in participating in it, but the reality is completely different. The survey results lacked information regarding how many down trodden, middle income group, construction workers, farmers, logistic workers etc participated. This seems to be fabricated survey results. Who will believe and why should one believe. Many working class people including me have not participated in the survey because, set questions didn’t address – if the prescribed medicine of Demonitisation is able to cure the Corruption-disease and in balancing the direct – and side-effects of this move, rather it asked if the disease is good or bad?
According to me, important questions went missing from the survey such as; Can demonetisation move eliminate corruption? Was this move, executed with proper planning to prevent drastic consequences: such as severe money crisis, suffering and death? Can we legally allow having a single innocent person to suffer or die from any Government issued policy? Was the timing of implementation of this move, just before the election, aimed for political gain or to eliminate corruption? Will the introduction of Rs. 2000 notes increase or decrease corruption?
No one supports corruption, but here PM Modi is using corruption tools to gain political mileage and shielding himself from the blunder he made. About 70 people lost their lives post demonetization. The survey has no option for a disagreement for the demonetisation and its results. It is a one sided questioner not giving a balance of opinions. It’s either one agree to it or is confused but no one can disagree with it. How can we even call this a survey? This is mockery of people’s rights and intelligence. Forget about implementation, I cannot comprehend how people can praise this policy. Not even policy. This is keeping people to financial hostage.
Moreover, the current population of India is 1,332,970,942 as of Wednesday, November 23, 2016, based on the latest United Nations estimates. How can PM make a justification after taking consideration of only 5 lakhs? Five lakhs is negligible number when compared to 1,332,970,942. Moreover, most of the suffering men and women don’t want to download Narendra Modi APP.
People who have voted against the demonetisation are his own followers. Then why didn’t he get 100% results? Seems some of his true followers did not rate well. This survey really seems awkward. It seems that Modiji is also trying to check whether people are happy or not with his decision. It’s a totally, useless survey in my opinion. Obviously, no one likes to download an app except his followers. They are saying Rs. 5 lakh crores are deposited in the banks’ accounts, but why don’t they say that Rs. One lakh crore has been withdrawn also. Why people have deposited, you know the reason but why they have withdrawn is totally because of lack of implementation and your third class planning. To add further, let me say that this demonetisation definitely will not solve the issue of counterfeit because new and old currencies possess same security features. Ideally, security enhancement should be there to avoid counterfeit notes.
Anyway, the issue is still the same without coming to core conclusion. Both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha were adjourned for the day following sustained ruckus over the demonetisation move and a demand for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s presence and intervention during the debate on the issue. Parliament has been witnessing heated arguments ever since the beginning of the winter session with adjournments ordered almost every day. This is what; Indian politics and politicians are all about. They waste our hard earned as taxpayers money.
(Any suggestions, comments or dispute with regards to this article send us on feedback@www.afternoonvoice.com)
