KHALIL AHMED MALIK
“Was this the triumph of good over the evil or has the good to share the punishment along with the evil.”
The nation got its Diwali Bonanza with PM Modi announcing the “Jan Dhan Badlo Yojana” as it could be rightly said, which exploded a little later like the unusual cracker in the string that explodes at the end of the show , delineating the series.
It came as a surprise for some, a shock for the other, a new propaganda for the opposition but a chaos for the common man.
Modi’s this extreme step affected almost every citizen of the nation at once, no matter what economic class he belonged to i.e. Lower/ upper/ middle/ high class ; even more influential than the annual budget.
Well, nation got united and supported the earlier surgical strikes against terrorsist groups in Pak but this time its difficult for the nation to take a unanimous decision in this regard Reasons being:
Decisions came as a surprise to the nation as it has not been in public domain or such a step could not be anticipated by any of the earlier govts.
A large no. of people did not clearly understand the policy & its norms. In a country where centrally sponsored schemes take decades to reach commom man , how could it be expected that people understand such a big reform within 2 days /weeks /months.
Economic/business congestion occured ranging from small daily basis dealings to large business transactions. People behave overtly cautious while accepting 500/1000 rupee notes. People felt economic constraints despite owning large currency notes.
Most serious problems are being faced by the people going attending marriage ceremonies, hospitalisation,medical treatments etc. Patients with cardiac problems, diabetes,tumors,trauma etc. require immediate drugs ,can’t wait for 2 days to get things normalized. Losing your joys and festivity or seeing your loved ones in pain and agony at the cost of some corrupt people and blackmoney holders may require a lot of patience on part of innocent citizens to bear that.
Lack of advertisement and abrupt immediate launch of scheme is a hinderance in way of common people to understand such a big change. Such a big change required large scale mass sensitization ,awareness and public education even more than any of the earlier schemes.
Political View. When seen through political prism, the step could be a single ray initiated by Modi ji that spread to every nook and corner of the nation and affected almost every being. It could be portrayed as a card played in lieu of upcoming elections in Punjab and U.P to gag the party with clean anticorrupt image and the congress which embarrasses BJP every now and then for the return of blackmoney. Further it would strengthen BJP’s image of transparent and honest govt.
Risks of Failure. As the difficulties faced by common man have been paramount, it could cause a lot of resentment among the people. On the contarary , those corrupt people might have designed ways to tackle the situation and turn it into an opportunity to convert black money into white by depositing in bank accounts of their well wishers.
The decision to ban Rs 500/1,000 notes and introducing 2,000 rupees note might cause embarrassing situation as in future the no. Of bags required to stack money would be reduced to half of the earlier.
Silly excuses like “Bank out of cash” ; ATM out of order ; insufficient cash etc add to public resentment.
Some Serious steps required to be taken simultaneously are providing immediate relief options to people undergoing medical treatments ,marriages,etc. A kind of emergency must be imposed and steps on war footing must be taken to deal with the crises arisen. To address the monetary concerns of 120 cr people in 2 days may not be an easy job. All state govts , central govt and their machineries must work in liason. Not only banks but other authorities likeGovernors, C.Ms, Ministers, beaurecracy, police, D.Cs must play at frontfoot to smoothen the process. Moreover this is the high time to propagate and profess the self declaration of assets as those blacksheeps are under intense pressure right now and might breakdown easily. Further , the DDOs & Account Sections of each deptt . should cater to the monetory needs of their employees by involving them into the currency exchange process. Other govt institutes should be turned into cash counters for the time being as banks alone are not in a position to cater to public grievance at this point.
If it is really a deterent step, then hyperactivation & empowerment of all anticorruption agencies, income tax deptt, intelligence agencies is required to knock out the real culprits. A survelleince of the most suspected lot i.e politicians, businessmen, beurecrats,contractors, engineers,even doctors unfortunately,etc must be conducted.
Finally my appeal to the citizens of the nation is to keep patience and support their elected P.M’s fight against corruption and blackmoney and lets uproot it once for all.
Jai Hind
(The writer is a Dental Surgeon with Govt Dental College & Hospital Jammu)