After the 50 days

January 02, 2017 01:26 am | Updated 01:26 am IST

In the run-up to the 2014 parliamentary election, Narendra Modi was very generous in his poll promises and was quite clear about blaming the UPA government for all the ills the country was facing. His mantra was economic development, assuring the electorate that he would bring back black money stashed abroad, promising to create millions of jobs and guaranteeing clean, transparent and good governance. In short, it would be ‘ Achhe Din ’. In 2016, Mr. Modi has completed half his tenure. No real development has taken place, there have hardly been any attempts at job creation and no black money stashed abroad has been brought back. The politician in him has adopted demonetisation as a diversionary tactic. There is no relief from this thoughtless and impulsive decision even after 50 days (“Modi thanks people for enduring note ban pain”, Jan.1).

N. Jan Mohammed,

Chennai

Since the exercise of demonetisation is now complete, it is the government’s responsibility to release all data about the amount of cash deposited, black money unearthed and the number of new notes pumped into the system. None of this was clear in the Prime Minister’s speech. Short-term pain is over but let’s hope that the long-term gain now percolates to the marginalised sections who were affected the most.

Gagan Pratap Singh,

Noida, Uttar Pradesh

The “relief package” announced will not reduce the pain of the common man. Mr. Modi has admitted that most of us suffered a lot due to the lack of homework in implementing the policy. It is evident that nothing will improve in the first quarter of 2017. His stoic silence on the quantum of black money collected and the steps to minimise the financial crisis and anarchy underlines this.

B. Prabha,

Varkala, Kerala

By Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s standards, his televised New Year-eve address was an insipid performance sans verve and vitality. For once his political messaging looked pedestrian. His comparison of the demonetisation drive to a ‘movement for honesty’ was a bid to assume the role of a moral crusader. If the people initially seemed favourably disposed to the move, it was because they were under the misapprehension that it was aimed at curbing black money and would not cause them immense distress and prove to be a pointless exercise as it did.

The slew of schemes, or rather sops, for the poor announced were crumbs. We couldn’t help noticing that the Prime Minister cleverly sidestepped the specifics of the demonetisation scheme and failed to demonstrate with data that his prescription achieved the desired effect. He disappointed those of us who were all ears to hear from him how he was going to plug the sources of black money. The government is not empowered to meddle with the savings of citizens in a manner it does with tax revenues.

G. David Milton,

Maruthancode, Tamil Nadu

The redeeming fact after the demonetisation exercise is that the people are still willing to stand by Mr. Modi in his battle. They do expect him to continue to take the lead in fighting corruption. His speech has certainly made people take note that we have a Prime Minister who has the courage to say that dishonest and corrupt officials will not be spared.

N.S. Venkataraman,

Chennai

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