Modi’s Demonetization Move Reflects His Commitment to The Cause

by N. S.Venkataraman- Nov 18, 2016

( November 18, 2016, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) To the surprise of the country men, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the demonetization of Rs.500/- and Rs.1000/- high value currency notes , all of a sudden.

The anxiety that was caused :

This unexpected move created considerable confusion and anxiety amongst the people immediately, as they have never undergone such experience in the past. Immediately after the announcement at 8 p.m. in the evening,   crowd started queuing  before 0.2 million ATMs all over India. However, the  ATMs had to be closed as the old currency had to be removed before replacing  with the new ones. Further, the ATMS have to be calibrated to meet the requirement of new notes.

As  the banks were closed the next day, and the ATMS too remained closed , there was panic all around. Some people even  started suspecting  whether all their money would be lost.

Mr.Modi explained to the people through television media that demonetization was necessary to   wipe away the black money and fake currency  circulating in the country and eliminate the corruption once for all.

Many people really thought that this exercise would be completed in 3 to 4 days and normalcy  would return  thereafter. But , the normalcy  have not yet returned even after 8 days, though the situation has been gradually improving.

Mr. Modi and his Finance Minister and officials have been reassuring the country men repeatedly that situation would become normal soon and have  appealed to the people to put up with the discomfitures for few days for the sake of ensuring corruption free India.

Overall reaction of common man favourable :

Common men, inspite of some reservations as to why they were made to suffer when they are not the black money holders, seem to have reacted more favourably , appreciating the need for eliminating black money and punish the corrupt persons.

As a matter of fact, people belonging to lower and middle  income group ,who have been suffering enormously due to prevalence of corruption at all levels of government machinery and even in educational institutions and hospitals have been  hoping that Mr.Modi would  put down the generation of black money and ensure elimination of corruption with great force.  Mr.Modi’s demonetization campaign and his explanation about  the need  for it have largely received positive response from the people.

Vicious campaign of the vested interests:

However,  the opposition political parties who  seem to have developed pledged hatred towards Mr. Modi , called his demonetization  strategy as  ill conceived, lacking in clarity and forward planning and termed it as costly exercise that India cannot afford.

With 20 percent of the  money in circulation in the country being black money and  most of such black money  being with politicians and business houses and traders ,it is  no surprise to see the manner in which  the  opposition parties  have denounced Mr. Modi’s demonetization drive.

While the government announced several restrictive measures to ensure that the black money would not be converted into white ,the black money holders have tried to circumvent the regulatory measures of the government in a variety of ways, which had forced the government to impose even more restrictions. 

 Though such restrictions were aimed at  black money holders, common men too have suffered in the process.

Exploiting the situation, attempts are being made to kill the initiatives of  the government by  whipping public anger against the move by clever propaganda, by the vested interests, which seem to have been considerably supported by the print and television media.  Day after day, debates have been taking place and photographs of the people standing in queue have been publicized with mischievous headlines and sidelines.

Understanding the mood of the people, opposition parties and vested interests have been saying that they support  the move to eliminate black money  but not the strategy adopted by Modi government that  have resulted in sufferings to the people. Obviously, their aim is to weaken the resolve of the Modi government to putdown black money , as the politicians and the business houses and traders would be the worst affected.

Some media  and politicians have been irresponsibly stating that  civic unrest would take place in India and law and order would become unmanageable  due to the so called public anger of the people.

Mr. Modi’s resolve will take him through : 

As Mr Modi has now taken a decision to fight against the black money holders and cannot look back, Modi government  is now facing a great  challenge.  The government  cannot afford to allow a situation  to develop, where the demonetization drive would end half way or fail to yield the type of positive results that are targeted.

The opposition politicians and the black money holders are likely to become increasingly aggressive and use variety of methods through media to spread an impression amongst the people that Modi government has failed.

As Mr.Modi is now taking an aggressive stand, fear is now haunting the black money holders that he would not spare them and the law would take it’s course soon.

Inspite of such stress , Mr. Modi appears to be determined to take the fight against black money to the logical end at any cost. While meeting the need to implement  his strategies competently with well designed process, Mr.Modi has to take the people along with him   even as the opposition parties and vested interests would strive their level best to derail the demonetization drive.

Mr. Modi is bound to succeed in his efforts as the cause is genuine and people want his efforts to eliminate black  money and corruption succeed. While the demonetization drive reflects Mr. Modi’s commitment to the cause, his strength of character  and determination will take him through.