Witoubou Newmai
Indians have started realizing what it takes to be an Indian in the Narendra Modi era. His innovative policies keep surprising the people but not as much as on his latest measure to curb black money.
Many people have hailed the ‘bold move’ of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to demonetize Rs. 1000 and Rs. 500 notes as a ‘masterstroke’ in dealing with black money hoarders. Besides curbing corruption, Narendra Modi aims to strangulate terrorists working against the interest of the country by doing away with counterfeit money. It is a noble goal indeed.
According to The Hindu daily, Narendra Modi “invoked provocative imagery to explain the measure — of corrupt officials stashing kilos of ill-gained cash under their mattresses, and such illicit black money fuelling inflation as well as terrorism.”
The Asian Age newspaper stated, “The mind-boggling logistics of replacing 23 billion notes will bring pain in the short term, but the sacrifices honest tax-paying citizens will have to make may be worth it if the noose can be tightened further around those who have cheated the nation for so long.” According to The Asian Age, “in an audacious move, the Narendra Modi government’s demonetisation of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 currency notes at the stroke of midnight November 8, has taken the country of 130 crore people into uncharted territory, but one with noble goals.”
Shortly after becoming the Prime Minister, Modi pledged to crack down on ‘black money’ by adopting several new measures, including 10-year jail terms for evaders. Media reports noted that few months ago, the Narendra Modi government “had raised nearly $10bn through a tax amnesty for Indians to report undeclared income and assets.” According to estimates from the Global Financial Integrity group in Washington DC, “about $439bn left the country illicitly from 2003-2012.” The findings of the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, informed that “at any given point of time Rs. 400 crore worth fake notes were in circulation in the Indian economy.” It also stated that “Rs. 70 crore fake notes were pumped into the economy every year.”
Even though the sudden demonetization of the two high currency notes is causing disruption in normal chores, everyone should be willing to take part in endorsing this noble aim of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Government in stamping out black money. Indians have been discussing the issue of black money in abhorrence for decades but no measures have come as close as the latest one.
Given the negative impact and the sordid history of corruption in the country, everyone should join in appreciating the Government for this drastic measure for curbing evil. In this, we should not allow the inconveniences and disruption of daily activities caused by the demonetization of the high currency notes to class us as disgruntled citizens.
In a place like Nagaland, majority of the people will face a lot of hardship due to non possession of bank accounts. However, local authorities should throw themselves into the scene to find options in order to ease the chaos.
