By Daya Sagar
Government of India made a daring but humble attempt by demonetising the Rs 500 and Rs1,000 currency notes w.e.f midnight of 9th November2016. Of course it was an ultimate step but has been received by many quite sportingly inspite of anticipating some immediate handicaps.
Late evening 8th November when Prime Minister Narendra Modi started addressing the Nation some people thought may be some military conflict between India and Pakistan was on the cards. Soon people
could find that Narendra
Modi was surely at “war” but it was not against Pakistan but it was against the “black
money” that had inflicted and has been inflicting heavy causalities on the Indian social
order, the peaceful – coexistence, civic order, delivery of public services , socio-economic security , planning as well as external security.
Union Finance Minister while talking to a TV channel on 12th November has said that the Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 denomination notes in circulation amounted to nearly worth Rs 14 lakh
crore and these two denominations formed nearly 86 % of the total paper currency in
circulation.
Anyone can easily assess from this summary data the level of inconvenience that could be caused ( by the demonetization Govt was compelled to order when all the installed administrative and legal mechanisms had failed to check even the local black money generation) to the general masses & local economic activities even when they may not be holding any black money but it could be due to their unavoidable immediate needs of currency for health/food/local transactions.
The graveness of compulsions with Government of India
could be well read from the press release of Reserve Bank of India 8th November 2016 that among other things too said: ” Government of India vide their Notification No. 2652 dated November 8, 2016 has withdrawn the legal tender status of ` Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 denominations of banknotes of the Mahatma Gandhi series issued by the Reserve Bank of India till November 8. This is necessitated to tackle counterfeiting Indian banknotes, to effectively nullify black money hoarded in cash and curb funding of terrorism with fake notes. ……….”. No doubt the fake currency racket and the unfair flow of money to the anti- India elements in denomination of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 would be badly crushed by this action of GOI but bulk of the unfair money transaction that has been inflicting serious damages to the Indian economy was for the reasons of nearly cancerous internal growth of the black money through direct and indirect thefts on the state revenue and expenditure. No doubt there are many sincere and honest government employees in income tax/ revenue/commercial taxes / related departments but since more of political back up is enjoyed by the evaders inspite of so many checks and balances incorporated in the system even the present NDA government has not been able to make the public service delivery system deliver on the ground. Therefore, no doubt such like ultimate actions by any government do reflect the failure / helplessness of a government to atleast tackle counterfeiting its currency and effectively nullify generation & hoarding of black money in cash through the established administrative & legal means but still such action as has been dared by Narendra Modi ( lead government) must be appreciated.
People have faced a little more problems than had been anticipated by the Prime Minister, may the administrative machinery down below the Prime Minister has not been able to stand to the expectations of the Prime Minister. Any how the action taken will surely do some good to the Indian economy and security.
No doubt the questions are being raised by some in the name of farmers facing difficulties in getting on spot returns from the buyers for their Khrif produce, people losing many of their hours while standing in queues for ATM withdrawal / cash exchange/ cash deposit ( bank staff has to check each and every note) and the like but it is hoped that extreme correction applied by the Prime Minister would surely set a way for change.
Narendra Modi has said that he is on war with the “Corrupt”. Yes he deserves all appreciations and support.
But he will have to also give a serious thought to the fact that inspite of so heavy government machinery in place for collecting state revenue through direct / indirect taxes as well as there being vigilance organisations to oversee the expenditure from the state exchequer how could so voluminous ‘black money’ empire establish for dismantling of what ‘Modi’ had to in a way dismantle the whole “Indian currency empire” of the day ?
No doubt the difficulties being faced by people due to demonetization will be soon over.
But in case Modi Government will not give first priority to correcting and streamlining the government servant the black money empire will grow again.
Among other things there is utmost need to even review the service security provided to government servants under Article -311 of Constitution of India (Dismissal, removal or reduction in rank of persons employed in civil capacities under the
Union or a State ) since it is often said by some that inview of the procedural security provided it is very difficult to weed out bad elements. Recently some news has been floated in media that ministry of personnel affairs is considering incorporating some more service security features for government employees and if atall there is any proposal that should be dropped.
(* Daya Sagar is a Sr journalist and a social activist, can be reached at [email protected]).
