The Prime Minister blamed “political worshippers of black money” while thanking the Indian diaspora for supporting demonetisation. Anyone criticising demonetisation is unfortunately being branded as pro-black money. If only he was aware of the ground reality! The economy has slowed and the worst affected are the poor, casual labour and villagers who survive on cash. Even after 50 days, there are still restrictions on withdrawing one’s own money. It is interesting to note that there are some in the government who admit that “all deposited money is not white”. Several IT raids across the country have revealed the presence of unaccounted money. Therefore, one of the very important aspects of demonetisation, namely a “surgical operation” against black money, has been far from achieved. We need tax reforms and transparency in large-scale financial dealings. Curbing a culture of bribe-giving needs more than just demonetisation to achieve the objective of clean governance and transparent dealings.
D.B.N. Murthy,
Bengaluru
