Going by the record of parliamentary debates in recent years, it should come as no surprise that virtually no constructive suggestions have come forth to remedy the situation arising from the half-baked planning before the demonetisation of high-value currency notes. Demonetisation was intrinsically a sound economic move by the Narendra Modi government to flush out black money which was estimated to be a whopping 22 per cent of the total money in circulation in India. Indeed, the exchequer was being defrauded massively by millions of people who evaded taxes routinely in blatant defiance of national interest.
The initial hiccups in terms of paucity of new currency notes for withdrawals from banks were all too evident but that did not detract from the value and worthiness of the well-intentioned move. Instead of going berserk on the demonetisation move itself, the Opposition in Parliament would have done well to welcome demonetisation while hauling up the government on the lack of preparation behind the reform and failure to anticipate the cash crunch which put especially the working class in hardship. The manner in which the likes of Arvind Kejriwal, Mamata Banerjee and some Congress bigwigs went about opposing the move itself and demanding a rollback of demonetisation made one wonder whether they had an axe to grind.
Congress Rajya Sabha leader Ghulam Nabi Azad gave the BJP a convenient stick to beat him with when he drew a preposterous parallel between the tragic deaths in queues of people waiting to withdraw cash and the martyrs who fell victim to Pakistani attacks in Uri, saying that more people had died in the queues than those soldiers killed in the Uri attack in Kashmir. With digression from the real issue it is quite on the cards that the Parliament session, which should have been an occasion for lawmakers to healthily debate the issue, would be lost in the din. One’s memory harks back to the days when there were serious thinkers and debaters among the Opposition leaders who gave the Treasury benches something to sweat about. Barring a few good speakers, in general today’s level of debate is, to say the least, pathetic.
The government on its part is engaged in making the best of a good move, while striving to ensure that the hardship that the people at large have been subjected to is mitigated and public dissatisfaction does not cross prudent limits. While anarchists Kejriwal and Mamata Banerjee waxed eloquent outside Parliament, giving the government an ultimatum that they would mobilise the masses to come to the streets, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley made it clear in Parliament that there was no question of any rollback or rethinking on the demonetisation move. He reassured members that the massive operation to replace high value currency would soon be over, paving the way for current restrictions in banking to be lifted. Surely, this is a crucial assurance that must be honoured in letter and spirit. Coming close on the heels of Prime Minister Modi’s promise to the people that all glitches would be sorted out in 50 days, there is room for looking ahead on reaping the gains from demonetisation in terms of substantially reducing black money, rooting out counterfeit currency that has ostensibly been pumped into the Indian economy by Pakistan’s ISI and choking the channels of terror funding for subversive activities in Kashmir and elsewhere.
It is time for the Opposition parties in Parliament to introspect. They will get nowhere with their negative tactics. They must build up their credibility which can only be done if they treat contentious issues on merits. There is absolutely no harm in accepting that demonetisation of high value currency is a worthy move and that all parties must pool their thoughts to make the policy successful. If there are any pitfalls on the way the Opposition must guard against those. The recalibration of ATM machines needs to be completed on a war footing and new currency notes with special features against counterfeiting currency must be printed and distributed post haste.
Some of the follow-up measures that the government is working on must be taken up speedily so that the black money racketeers and counterfeit currency syndicates are not able to frustrate the government’s worthy moves. Vested interests and foreign forces must be held at bay while the new policies to wage an all-out war on the black economy are taken with due seriousness. It is going to be no easy task but if there is a man who can do it, it is Prime Minister Modi who is cast in the role of crusader with huge stakes. If the demonetisation experiment fails, as is unlikely, Modi personally and the BJP as a whole would lose face irreparably. However, if Modi comes out of this ordeal of fire with flying colours he would be unstoppable in 2019.
