Sir — This refers to the editorial, “Demonetisation blues” (September 1). If 99 per cent of the demonetised currency has returned to the Reserve Bank of India, as it has claimed, it means that the fight against black money through demonetisation was not properly thought out.
This ‘anti-rich idea’, the ‘surgical strike’ on black money was successfully marketed by the BJP in Uttar Pradesh and other States during elections. Union Minister for Finance, Arun Jaitley, claimed that three lakh crore rupees of black money would get extinguished. Instead only Rs 1,600 crore has not re-entered the banking system. Any fight against black money would be incomplete without first tackling the issues of political funding, benami properties and offshore investments. The inescapable conclusion is: The pain of demonetisation was real, the gain remains intangible.