President Mukherjee's comments are timely
President Pranab Mukherjee's address to the nation on the eve of Republic Day should come as a big boost to the Union Government, given that the President generally raises issues that are in keeping with the Government's agenda. And yet, President Mukherjee has often spoken his mind, and on issues that the Government's opponents interpreted as showing a mirror to the Modi regime. This time, he whole-heartedly endorsed demonetisation, saying that while it had temporarily slowed down the economy, transparency would improve as “more and more transactions become cashless”. This has been exactly the contention of the Government. Critics of demonetisation should heed his words; after all, he has decades of experience in public service and has served as the country's Minister for Finance. Already, queues outside banks and ATMs have disappeared, and while the availability of money is still limited, the situation can only get better. The panic period is gone, and the worst too is over — though former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh contrarily warns of “the worst yet to come”. He is clearly not on the same page as that of the President, once his distinguished ministerial colleague. President Mukherjee raised another issue which is presently under the Government's active consideration: Electoral reforms. He called for a constructive debate on the issue.
Again, this is something that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has constantly said, and as recently as a month ago. While addressing a BJP meet, he remarked that the people had the right to know where donations to the party came from. He was clearly hinting at revamping the existing rules, one of which did not insist on the name of donors to be known if the donations were of less than Rs20,000 each. Opposition parties must sit together with the Government to prepare a roadmap for electoral reforms, and this should also include the feasibility of holding elections simultaneously to the lok Sabha and the State Assemblies. The last one may have to be rolled out in phases, but a beginning has to be made in the direction of cutting down on electoral expenses. Besides, constantly having one part of the country or the other in election mode affects development work and adversely impacts people's welfare. Since all political parties have agreed on the need for such reforms, there should be no difficulty in working out the details. The only fear is that partisan politics may become an obstacle. President Mukherjee also touched upon the importance of tackling poverty — something that should be at the core of any Government's economic policies — and hinted that unless the GDP growth sustained at 10 per cent or so for an extended period of time, denting poverty meaningfully will remain a challenge. Given that 20 per cent of the country's population lives below the poverty line — let's not quibble here over the methodology of determining that — it's the Government's duty to address the anomaly.