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Is politics the only answer?

Posted in View Point

Published on December 08, 2016 with No Comments

Those who tend to keep a good eye on happenings in India, are feeling disillusioned for more than one reason.  As this edition would hit the stands, it would be exactly one month when Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi went live on TV to announce that the current 500 and 1,000 rupee notes would cease to be legal tender. Since then, the nation is doing certain things that it had not done before. Their hard earned money is locked in banks. Banks don’t have enough liquidity and hence the nation is standing in queues and opting to survive through innovative ways while keeping emotions under check.

Indians have got a fair idea that Prime Minister Modi and the economic affairs secretary Shaktikanta Das have been controlling thedemonetization episode from the beginning, not Urjit Patel the governor of the Reserve Bank of India. With each passing day, there are amendments that only make the situation complex. Going by the law book, the Reserve Bank of India is the authority on currency management and hence the governor Urjit Patel should have played an active role by taking the public into confidence and push ahead the demonetization exercise. But he hasn’t or wasn’t allowed to, thus putting the announcement of November 8 under a cloud of suspicion. The move was a political decision and less of economic and hence RBI was not allowed to remain part of the loop. It would have been far better if the execution of the decision was effectively planned and communicated to the public by the governor of the Reserve Bank of India, rather than a bureaucrat. There is a serious disconnect between the RBI and the government on the implementation of demonetization. Frequent changes in rules have become the norm since the November 8 announcement and points to absence of co-ordination. This has given the opposition parties enough armor to keep the parliament stalled. They have criticized Urjit Patel for compromising the autonomy of RBI. Since then Urjit Patel has spoken to few media houses but hasn’t addressed the media to clarify the actual liquidity position of the banking system and how soon the currency crunch will end.

Also the point being raised by the Chief Minister of Bengal Ms. Mamata Banerjee does need some consideration. What started with a vocal and organized protest against the

demonetization that was being spear headed by her, has fast turned into an issue on civil-military ties. She showed enough signs of having got agitated as lately the Army had set up checkpoints at toll gates in Bengal, including one near the state secretariat in Kolkata. She has said permission to do so was not sought from the state government. Modi government responded that the Army “was in communication with the state”, whatever that means.  If the Army really wanted to know how many civilian vehicles of any particular specification are available in a state for possible military use in a crisis, all it has to do is to ask the transport department for data and not physically position its jawans and officers. Setting up checkpoints without the permission of the local authorities is a different matter altogether and does need an explanation. But any interface with the civil sector needs the state authorities’ clearance. This is necessary to retain the civil-military balance. But by not doing so, the Modi government has again brought its partial role into focus. From breaching the rights of the RBI governor to centre state relations, the present government has done it all.

Another controversy that could have been handled well but wasn’t.  Modi government just managed to get an FIR registered and ordered an investigation into the hacking involving the Twitter handles of Rahul Gandhi and the Congress Party.

On one side the hacking of the accounts, suggests that key personalities, political parties and celebrities should be more cautious and smart in handing their accounts; and on the other hand by leveling charges against Rahul Gandhi and Congress Party for making an attempt to derail the “cashless society”, the government by not addressing the hacking as a threat has only exposed itself further.

From economy to centre state relations to security, the ruling party has politicized it all.

 

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