In demonstrating the very rare commodity called ‘political courage’, the BJP and the Modi Government have cleared the country of the poison that had for years marred its economy and moulded its politics
It is not often that we find that political personalities, who inevitably look behind their back for voter support, have the gumption to administer the bitter medicine for the country to cure a cancerous growth in the polity. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision to demonetise high-value currency denominations is one such historic step.
It has become evident that the Prime Minister knew that there would be more brickbats than bouquets for him, personally, if he took such a step. The pain of a man who is willing to take the brickbats and expect only few bouquets, was evident in his television address to the nation when he announced his Government’s decision on November 8. Predictably, the results were no different.
The urban chaos that followed the demonetisation drive was good material for the TV channels and page3 faces of the print media to hammer the Government, particularly the Prime Minister, because it was his announcement. It was his face that got associated with the massive difficulties that followed.
Days later, news was focused on serpentine queues before banks as anxious ordinary people lined up at banks to exchange their currency which would become a worthless piece of paper after December 30.
On the other hand, critics are out on the streets. This was expected. But the actual trouble is that even thought leaders have joined the critics who have their axe to grind. These thought leaders knew that there is no other way to force out the storage of high-value currency held as black money through evasion of taxes, undervaluation of property, channels of bribes to gain governmental favors, and political “investment” in the search for power.
Recently, during a series of elections to State Assemblies in the last 12 months, a sum of over Rs300 crore were seized from different parts of the country by the Election Commission officials while it was being transported. And it is just a tip of an iceberg. The real cash, and all of it in black, used in elections, is obviously many times more. The Government’s ‘surgical strike’ on black money will cleanse the Indian economy and politics, in one shot!
Add to such hoards were the counterfeit currencies being pushed into the country by a determined Pakistani agency to destabilise and destroy our country. This also helped finance terrorism and drug imports. Critics who are of the view that other ways must have been found to squeeze out the black currency have not so far even in one analysis showed what the other way could have been.
Data wizards are claiming that only six per cent of the black money was being held as currency. The major part was converted into property, often benami. These wizards missed the significance of the law that was passed recently to identify and seize benami properties. The November 8 announcement of demonetisation brings out the significance of the action against benami holdings.
If many in the Opposition have closed their eye to the dilemma that a Government leader would face with such a delicate operation, it must be because they were more intended on exploiting the public’s difficulties than on helping the Government overcome the citizen’s problems.
Many of these leaders themselves have run Governments at different levels over the last 30 years and must have known how difficult would be to recalibrate lakhs of ATMs in the short window that offered itself after the near midnight announcement of de-legalising high-value currency.
If the new currency had been printed in large quantities, the whole operation would have gone bust due to leakages. That these new currencies could be made available in small measure and step by step, meant huge inconvenience for the small traders, vegetable vendors, tea-stall owners who deal with small change of Rs100 and Rs500 notes. The new currencies had to be rationed, bringing a good portion of the legal daily transactions, including daily wage dispersal to a standstill.
The need for secrecy made it imperative that a wide spectrum of people would be affected as ATMs had either been closed for recalibration or ran out of money. There isn’t a sense of shame in the Opposition, which includes the Congress and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
The UPA regime, led by the Congress, was the fountainhead of corruption during 2004-2013. It started with the 2G scam when cash in hundreds of crores of rupees changed hands and the apex court had to cancel the licences handed out for money to the political boss concerned, an ally of the Congress.
The Congressmen in charge of other Ministries were no angels either. The Commonweath Games scam, the coal licences scam followed. The addiction to corruption was so deep in the Congress that soon after a Congressman in the coalition got hold of the Railway Ministry, his close relation was caught strutting about in the Rail Bhavan corridors looking for the filthy lucre.
When such is the party’s reputation, its leaders chanting corruption in the demonetisation turns out to be a big joke. So too with Banerjee whose Ministers and activists are facing cheating charges along with the State’s biggest corruption issue in the Saradha chit funds. But Banerjee has no shame leading the procession to the President protesting against this surgical operation to squeeze out black money.
Decisions like these, where the Government is exposing people to serious difficulties in their daily needs, can only be taken by leaders who have the courage to face the people. That courage comes from the billion voters who have heard of these leaders, chose to remain untainted and have now over the two years seen it in action without a single black mark on their body politic.
In our mythology we have the well-known story of the devas and asuras planning together to churn the ocean to take out the nectar of immortality but facing instead poison coming out of the ocean. Someone had to gulp down the poison lest it affect the nectar that was the next coming. Then Shiva volunteered to drink it to clear the way for the nectar. Such is the stuff of leadership that really delivers what it promises.
Critics of the BJP are accusing it of political intentions in this surgical operation against black money. The BJP should accept that charge because only a courage of conviction will generate the will to take on the black money mafia unafraid of weeks of brickbats. In demonstrating that very rare commodity called political courage, the party and the Government have cleared the country of the poison that had for years marred its economy and moulded its politics.
(The writer is a Rajya Sabha MP and political commentator)