JOIN USI watched with great awe and interest Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s national address on demonetissation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes which essentially made more than three quarters of our currency worthless from the midnight of November 8.
My initial impression was that this is a masterstroke, an economic blitzkrieg and one of the gutsiest decisions by any leader in any democratic set up in the recent modern history that I am aware of.
The cancer of corruption and black money had eroded the essence and moral fabric of our civil society and was metastasising like the most virulent cancers to every aspect of our life and only the most radical of radical surg-eries would and could save our society from this deadly cancer.
The prime minister had performed this radical surgery with great panache in a confident manner in the fastest time possible. In medical terms, this would mean surgery par excellence that could be achieved only by a brilliant surgeon with extraordinary skills.
I thought all sections of the society except the corrupt and hoarders of ill-gotten wealth would welcome this with folded hands. However, the next few days were very confusing for me as I witnessed a slew of demonstrations by various political parties, organisations against this and the pain it caused to the common man.
Adding to the confusion was the intriguing opinions given by various experts both for and against in this procedure.
This really got me thinking, and since I am no expert in this field, after a lot of common sense-driven trepidation, my views are:
a) Whatever one may say, this is truly a landmark decision taken in the interest of the nation which will go a long way in eradicating corruption and black money in the long run.
b) It will give a great impetus to reduce deficit and bring back money to the circulation in a healthy manner and bring down inflation.
c) The significant short-term benefits we see are the drastic reduction of funding of terrorists and anti-national elements in the country (we are already seeing this in Kashmir and Naxal-infested areas).
d) It gets rid of the scourge of fake currency coming from across the border especially used to fund terrorism.
e) It brings in transparency in elections and bring down the concept of note for vote.
f) It breaks the unholy nexus of unscrupulous businessmen and power brokers duping and looting the exchequer.
g) It betters tax collections by expanding the banking business and use of plastic money making deals more transparent and all this would certainly reduce inflation and help reduce taxes and infuse more money into developmental projects.
Implementation hiccups
Of course, it goes without saying that a significant amount of inconvenience has been caused to the common man and there have been some hiccups in the implementation of this extraordinary programme but an exercise of this magnitude in a very diverse country like ours where secrecy was of utmost importance, some of these steps were inevitable.
It is also true that though this measure has substantially shaken up the black economy of the country, it has also caused collateral damage and disrupted the cash economy very prevalent in the country especially in daily wage earners, petty traders and the rural farming sector.
I do believe the government is aware of this and will take remedial measures to protect the latter group and water will find its level soon.
It is also true that this measure alone will not completely eradicate the black parallel economy. Many other measures like going after benami properties, black money invested in gold and diamonds, hawala racketeering and money parked abroad illegally are also needed to complete the exercise. We had to begin somewhere and this was certainly a brilliant way to start the innings.
All in all, the prime minister needs to be congratulated in having the courage, the conviction and the guts to take this extraordinary measure, an economic coup of sorts in the long-term interest of the country and we certainly hope this is the beginning of the end for black marketeering and black marketeers in the country.
(The writer is Chairman, Manipal Hospitals, Bengaluru)