Forum Debate: Banking Reforms — 7 Nov 2017
DEBATE (1) Banking Reforms
It is easily understandable why some bank officers are feeling uneasy. Acting in collusion with some politicians and some rogue bureaucrats, these bank officials made lots of money , never thinking that they may be investigated. Many of them helped money launderers during the demonetisation, to convert black money illegally. The government should take drastic action against these officials, and quickly, otherwise the impact would dissipate. They played a high risk, high gain game. So now with change of circumstances, they should pay the price. If they played at the instance of rogues and made easy money, they would have evaluated the risks also! So now they cannot take take any plea , of political coercion then. With security of job, unlike private sector, they chose to connive , and played fraud.
S Chatterjee
Kaaliarthavyavastha in ICU
The Opposition, led by politicians of the Congress, Trinamool Congress, DMK, CPI, CPM, RJD, SP, BSP and others have been in drool & gloom since “Notebandi”, aggravated by GST and plan to start a nationwide agitation against it from 8th November 2017. The day happens to be the first anniversary of the demonetization of 500 & 1000 rupee currency notes on 8th Nov 2016. The grand opposition wants to observe it as a black day! Observing black day for striking effectively at the black money is nothing short of black humour! The opposition charges that Notebandi and GST have adversely affected the country’s economy and sent it to the ICU. In reality, the black money economy has been in the ICU since last year. All operations of the parallel economy, run by the parallel government, generating black money larger in size compared to the revenues accruing to the public exchequer came to a sudden halt. It was a disaster they could never imagine as they had become accustomed to the corrupt ways of the system created by the black money, stressing all white money operations. The real estate business provides a telling illustration: the ratio between white to black money dealings in the real estate sector was 90:10 some 50 years ago but reached 40:60 by 2014. All conceivable kind of black money went into the real estate sector. Properties were bought in the name of the investor or some proxy to escape tax laws and investigation agencies. Bribe, extortion, ransom, smuggling, drug peddling, robbery, conning, betting, spying, contract killings, speculation and hundreds of other shady deals generated money in tonnes. Even the quantum of bribes rose from a humble few thousands to crores! Industry could get power to run its plants if 80% profits were given to the politicians and bureaucrats. The Narendra Modi government pursued doggedly transparency and made its intent clear by auctioning national assets like spectrum, mines and all government purchases. It was just the opposite of what the kaaliarthavyavastha was used to; Modi’s initiatives affected its health. Duplicate and fraudulent PAN cards numbering 11.35 lakhs have been deactivated. Unless black money operators are at it no citizen would take more than one PAN. Removing bogus beneficiaries of government subsidies saved Rs. 57,029 crore. Even if each swindler got Rs 1500000 (fifteen lakh), it would mean a fiercely loyal brigade of 3,50,000 followers to stage a Black Day. Schemes like MGNREGS will throw up disturbing figures of bogus muster rolls in lakhs. Even the educated class had taken to corrupt means of doing business in India: more than 2,00,000 fake companies have been deregistered. The nexus of corrupt business-Babu-Neta-CA has exploited the common man for 70 years and Narendra Modi has been able to rein them only partially. Even then they are crying foul, holding protest rallies, agitations, media & SM campaigns unabashedly. They have the cheek to observe 8th November as Black Day! This is what has exactly happened: the kaaliarthavyavastha or the black money economy has been admitted in the ICU (Intensive Care Unit) for care & rehabilitation. It has the slimmest chances of improvement in its health. That is the reason for so much desperation on the part of its mentors, Gurus, Acharyas, leaders, middlemen and others as 2019 is not very far. Unless revived, it is likely to need intensive critical care and be moved to the ICCU. Black Day is an exercise in reviving it before Narendra Modi cashes on the success of notebandi & GST. There is an attempt to portray these two game changing initiatives of a transparent government as failures and anti-people. They call it a failure affecting the economy, fall in GDP numbers and loss of jobs against all logic and rationale. The black money operations do not qualify to be categorized as GDP or jobs. It means the earlier data was inflated because of their inclusion. Once the black money operations ceased, the real economic data exhibits the true heath of the economy. The data post notebandi and GST is very encouraging as it has registered satisfactory growth rate. It is sturdy, sustainable and healthy growth. The World Bank’s Doing Business Report 2018 says it all: India has moved from position 130 in DBP report for 2017 to 100 for 2018. It has caused total black out for the opposition who have termed the report “fixed”. Since the Congress and its allies were experts in fixing deals, they think Prime Minister Narendra Modi has risen so high in stature that he can influence even the World Bank and get a favourable report from it. Are they complimenting Modi or expressing heartburn? The opposition can’t impose its negative ideas on the masses, who understand the nuances better than they imagine. It is time for the opposition to learn a few lessons in socialism, patriotism and economic development from the new era of socialism launched by prime minister Narendra Modi. The old socialist misconceptions, cobwebs and blinkers need to be removed at once if the opposition leaders want to usher in a new and revised socialist era in India. The outdated tools of militant socialism of wasting time, resources and manpower in holding demonstrations, organizing protest rallies, gheraos, tool down, pen down and chakkajam need to be junked. Holding demonstrations against black money operations, improved tax collection methods or observing black day indicate how awfully these parties are still caught in the time warp and want the people of India also to remain trapped with them. With advancements in AI (Artificial Intelligence) revolutionary disruptions are going to take place globally in the field of production, distribution and employment, which would need enlightened leadership. The older generation will become unproductive and out of synch with the market scenario. Who will need politicians of so many parties in that situation? Crowds for political rallies are provided by contractors on payment these days unlike the decades of the 1940s, 1950s etc. The opposition parties should stop contributing to the making of the economy sick and start working hard and honest to contribute their share to the real GDP. They can’t go on amassing wealth without working hard. Even if not yet proved corrupt, the wealth of more than 95% politicians in India have increased to several millions as reported by them to the Election Commission. Where from have they acquired so much wealth? They should not dream of another run of the black economy. They should help bury it. The opposition parties and not the voters need to correct vision and course. Observing Black Day against demonetisation & GST is counter Transparency & GST Revolution. It would be better for them to join the revolution or they will be wiped out in 2019.
M L Gupta
Stupid decision
Deploying School teachers for religious work is a stupid decision. My impression is that there are large number of BJP/RSS members who are against PM-as he is taking strict action against corrupt people. These people are not able to make illegal money and hence are indulging in acts which bring bad name to the party. So this action of Harayana Government is an outcome of this anger.
S Gopal
