JOIN USBKC smells political motive behind demonetisation
Former minister B K Chandrasekhar said, the scheme for unearthing black money should have been a combination of demonetisation and voluntary disclosure of assets for effectiveness. He said, he smells a political motive behind demonetisation, in the wake of the ensuing Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab.
Addressing a media conference, here, on Monday, he said, he had appreciated the Centre, when it launched the voluntary disclosure of assets scheme and his criticism is not just for the sake of it. “In 1997, when the then Congress government announced the voluntary assets declaration scheme, it had said that 77% of the additional revenue would be shared among the states to gain the support of the state governments. This element could have been added to the present scheme. Now, the process of demonetisation seems to have no proper plan. This is evident with the announcements made by the Centre every couple of days in view of improvisation. Now, after the sufferings of the people, queuing up before banks and post offices for a fortnight, the Centre is sending an official committee to study the problems in the states,” he pointed out.
“The Centre is using the excuse of ‘stalling the misuse of counterfeit currency and black money by terrorists’ to shield its ill-conceived policies. The present form of demonetisation would not yield any significant results — either to unearth black money or to tackle the menace of fake currencies. A Central committee had reported in 2012 that demonetisation is not advisable for a cash-intensive economy like India. At least 80% of rural people do not have bank accounts. Not allowing transaction of old notes in cooperative banks is a big blow to the rural masses,” he said.
Chandrasekhar said, the comments of Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the Congress and other opposition parties are under threat due to the demonetisation, is in bad taste. “Does it mean that all the funds received by the BJP are accounted and that only other parties receive unaccounted money? I presume that the BJP has made arrangements to safeguard all its funds, before announcing demonetisation. It also seems to be a move to divert the attention of the people from issues like the BJP’s failure in fulfilling its assurances given during its election campaigns,” he said.
Recalling that the BJP had make the issue of black money stacked in foreign banks, especially in Swiss banks, the main poll plank, he said, Modi had assured that he would bring back all the black money within 100 days of coming to power.
Stating that former minister S A Ramdas, also president of Bhartiya Reserve Bank Note Mudran Limited Employees Union, had stated that he was aware of the demonetisation a couple of months earlier itself, Chandrasekhar said, given the claims about the secrecy in the scheme, the Union Finance Minister should initiate a probe in this regard.
‘Modi: Man of surprises’
Mocking at the surprise element in the announcement of the demonetisation policy by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, former minister B K Chandrasekhar said, Modi is ‘a man of surprises’, reports DHNS from Mysuru.
He said, Modi surprised all by pushing BJP’s towering personality L K Advani to the background, his victory with a thumping majority in the Lok Sabha was a surprise to all, his visit to Pakistan to attend Nawaz Sharif’s granddaughter’s wedding was a surprise, now demonetisation is a surprise,” he said.
While some surprises are good for society, some leave the citizens suffering. So, most of the surprises are good only if it is in a fiction. For reality, information to all is important, especially in a democracy like India. Discussion and deliberations are a must to announce a people-friendly policy, said Chandrasekhar.