Boycotts of Parliament and walkouts have become so common that it is surprising when a session passes without a boycott. The current winter session is no exception. After the first day of debate on demonetisation announcement by the government, ruckus started over Congress leader in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad drawing a parallel between the deaths of those awaiting their turn for cash withdrawal in banks and the martyrdom of Indian soldiers at the hands of Pakistani terrorists in Uri town of Jammu and Kashmir.
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The triggering of a battle between the Opposition and the Treasury benches then led the Opposition to boycott Parliament on another issue—the absence of Prime Minister Modi from the debate.
Is this an issue on which there ought to have been a boycott? The Prime Minister apparently does not want to speak any more over demonetisation and it should be his prerogative not to. After all, he had addressed the nation the evening the demonetisation was announced and had made his objectives clear. He had appealed for cooperation from people but the country’s Opposition took the negative approach even though the move was path-breaking.
The country’s Finance Minister was deputed to reply to the debate in Parliament and the Opposition should have respected that.
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Yes, with Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 denomination notes that were demonetised, accounting for a whopping 85 per cent of the total currency in circulation, there was disruption in supply of currency. It could legitimately be said that the planning of the move could have been better. But there is also the argument that there was a dire need for utmost secrecy and had the machines been recalibrated for new notes, some bankers in particular may have smelt a rat because of which the fire-fighting measures had to wait until after the announcement of demonetisation.
What should worry the Opposition parties is that while there was and is a great deal of hardship that the common man is facing due to the long queues for the measly amount that the banks have been mandated to disburse to account-holders, there is no violent reaction so far from people at large. There is general disgust over the hardship they are being put to, but after the Prime Minister pleaded with them to give him 50 days to set things right and assured them that the intention was an all-out crusade against black money and counterfeiting of currency, the people are less charged up and more patient.
But why were the parliamentarians so keen that the Prime Minister must speak on the issue in Parliament? With his fine oratorical skills and the way he measures his words, he would have sounded more convincing than the others who were running down a measure that was deemed to be a frontal assault on black money, which is what they have been clamouring for in their private interactions for years. They would have perhaps caught him on some observation but that would have only convinced people that the Opposition was trying to sabotage a measure that would ultimately hit the rich and the privileged hard.
There is no doubt that the Union government needs to get its act together quickly before public dissatisfaction spills on to the streets, especially after the 50-day deadline set by Mr Modi is over. The recalibration of the ATM machines to give out new currency must be completed at breakneck speed. The new Rs. 500 notes that were promised soon after demonetisation must arrive on a major scale at the earliest. But as of now the Government’s firefighting is working and people are in a mood to wait and watch.
Also read: Post-demonetisation – Three steps that the government should take
In a week it would be salary time and any cash crunch would cause much bickering. Is the government geared up to meet the challenge?
The Opposition on its part may rue the hasty manner in which it took on the government not only on the poor implementation of the demonetisation scheme in its initial days but also on the move itself, with the likes of Trinamool Congress’ Mamata Banerjee and Aam Aadmi Party’s Arvind Kejriwal leading the way on negativity, demanding a rollback.
The Opposition indeed has got together with as many as 10 parties making it a common cause. But the glue that has held them together is the fear of Modi sweeping the Lok Sabha polls in 2019. Many of them neither think alike on most issues nor have an outlook that would appeal to the young voters particularly. The parties that have welded together on an anti-BJP platform are: the Congress, Trinamool Congress, CPI, CPM, DMK, BSP, Janata Dal (United), JMM, NCP and RJD. Of these, the Janata Dal (U) is a class apart because its leader, Nitish Kumar, supports the demonetisation move. Most of the parties have a small presence in Parliament.
Significantly, the Samajwadi Party stayed away, citing pre-occupation with the recent rail accident.
The recent by-elections in BJP’s citadel of Madhya Pradesh, has shown that its clout has not come down in the wake of demonetisation.
Yet, there can be little doubt that the BJP has no grounds for complacency in the upcoming Assembly elections in five states including U.P. and Punjab and subsequently in the 2019 parliamentary elections. Prime Minister Modi has indicated that more steps to unearth black money are on the anvil and that with an agreement having been reached with the Switzerland government, it is only a matter of time before those bigwigs having secret accounts in Swiss banks are unmasked.
The expectations from Modi are huge and he will have to live up to them. If he plays his cards well, he would be unstoppable in 2019
