All through our lives we have read about the great revolutions
of the past centuries that have changed the course of nations and world in
general. And at the back of our mind we have always envisaged them as something
fictitious or a tale best suited to glorify our history books. But with the
ongoing demonetization drive spearheaded by Prime Minister Modi, the 125 crores people strong nation has by
default become a part of one of the most momentous revolution to have ever
taken place in India.
A big step, if not ‘THE’
step to tame the menace of black money, but surely a bold step in the right
direction which none of his predecessors have dared to take. Expectedly, as the
trend has been in the last 2.5 years, a strong segment of media and opposition
is blindly opposing it zestfully, irrespective of the long term cure that this
revolution will bring to our long ailing corrupt system, they are more keen to play the
literal role of an opposition, which per them is to ‘oppose’. Now if you look at it from a neutral perspective, it would
have been so easy for Mr Modi to not undertake this herculean and rather wrath-inviting
task and still got re-elected in 2019, not by the virtue of his supposedly good
work (good as compared to what his predecessors have delivered ) but by the sheer
incapability and lack of presence of a strong challenger to his throne. Despite
that he still took a plunge, which in itself is an indicator of his intent, vision
and passion to do good for the nation.
Now there is a section in our society who has invariably
discounted, laughed off and down played whatever new or commendable initiative
he has taken ever since he took oath. And that is to a good extent acceptable too
because I for myself also discounted or downplayed whatever little good the
erstwhile Manmohan Singh government did. But there are certain things which are
too good to be true and on the face value seem unbelievably perfect to be
happening in Indian context and as a responsible citizen of this country one
should support and respect such initiatives irrespective of their inherent
loyalties. And the mantra of a true rivalry and sportsmanship states that it is
wise to concede and acknowledge the opponent if he has done something
extraordinarily good, blind criticism on anything and everything only does harm
to oneself.
So for those disregarding the demonetization by stating that
this isn’t the 1st of its kind and this was already done once in
last 70s, do they even know that our economy wasn’t even tenth of what it is
today, the scale of execution is several times higher and irrespective of 1st
time or 10th time, isn’t it a good exercise which should have been
done say 10-15-20 years back? Is it necessary to bring up the 2nd
time rhetoric rather than simply appreciating this bold move on its face value
and moving on?
For those who are focusing on the inconvenience caused to
the common masses due to lack of proper planning, isn’t this 50 day inconvenience
worth the larger good it will do to our corrupt system? And as a matter of fact
the Prime Minister has himself admitted that there will be inconvenience due to
the scale of this operation and inherent inefficiencies in our system but we
should collectively sail through, keeping an eye on the long term benefits this
temporary inconvenience is causing.
Those who are discounting this mega drive by lamenting that
this will not curb or eradicate the black money menace, should pay heed to the
fact that only in the 1st four days of this exercise over one lakh
crore rupees of black money has already come into the mainstream banking
system. Can you imagine what good can be done through such a corpus for the all-round
development of our society? Quite certainly, it would only be a fraction of
what actually exists, but isn’t it a good starting point? Or shall we not start
the treatment, assuming that this treatment wont fully cure us in one go?
People might say that it has been hastily planned and it
should have been done in a more phased manner. But in retrospective it all
seems very sequential - opening of Jan Dhan accounts, linkage of Aadhar card
for subsidies, excise duty on jewelry, continuous pressure to declare your unaccounted
wealth etc. This was bound to happen! And interestingly as the PM says there is
more to come, much to the glee and relief of the poor and diligent tax payers
like me and to the misery of those who have been looting and not paying taxes
for last so many decades. And for the proponents of the phased execution of
this exercise, if at all this could have been achieved successfully, it had to
be done as ruthlessly as they are doing it now. Yes, they could have done
better to improve certain operational issues that are causing inconvenience to
the masses, but in the longer run they are inconsequential with regards to the
objective we are heading to achieve.
These are changing times for our nation and for a change our
nation is changing for good :).
Like it or not, we are under the leadership of a man who is hell bent to change
the system which has been ailing, inefficient and lackadaisical for decades. He has a clear vision in his mind
and he is tactfully working towards implementing it. And for those who have
been discounting and ridiculing him as a ‘jumlebaaz’
all these years, truly and surely know his worth in gold by now :). He is here to stay, he
will make his stay count and I am proud to have elected him as my Prime Minister.
--
kin…
Post Script – Mr Modi is that high performing employee who
goes by his manager’s script of doing good throughout the year and making the
right noises that will earn him a good appraisal in the coming cycle :).
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