Modi's poor home work

Modi’s government has done very poor home work before launching surgical strike on black money.  The objective of controlling or eliminating black money is certainly the need of the hour.  On 7^th November night he announced the cancellation of 500 and 1000 currency notes effective from night and asked us to exchange with new notes from bank from 9^th November onward.

It generates mixed responses and I don’t know whether to welcome this decision or worried about repercussions from common man.   Perhaps, accepted the decision as a bold and brave from Modi for the sake of the nation, but is 1.25 billion people can handle the transformation with shock? 

The currency in our purse become useless, yes the validity of the currency is depends on the acceptance in market and therefore technically it is useless.  Indian citizen accepts the decision and patiently waiting for the banks to open and exchange their cash on hand and now slowly landing in frustration. 

Petrol stations refused to accept old currencies though government told that they will accept.  Many shops are closed due to lack of cash in villages and towns.  Family occasions like marriages and other ceremonies are either postponed or cancelled.  Daily wagers have lost their income and are in desperate to find food for their family members.  Government ration shops are getting looted as reported one in Madhya Pradesh. Bank employees have forced to forget their own family and are struggling with enormous shock in handling the massive cash exchanges. Servers are breaking down between branches and headquarters.  Bank employees are prone to exaggerated common people if the situation continues for another week.  

The flaw in implementing the decision is slowly boomeranging and now the Finance minister is advising that it will take at least another twenty one days to become normal.  RBI is keep announcing that we have enough cash to replace but in reality branches are emptied with whatever cash they have.  I have many questions on this implementation method and I am expecting the responsible authorities from government to answer me because I am a good citizen of the country and do all my financial transactions through bank and pay taxes on time.

1)      It was announced in television channels that the decision is taken between PM and FM with Amit Shah on loop to keep the decision and implementation is secret.  But Venkaiyah Naidu briefed in press conference that they discussed this in their very first cabinet meeting.  Have they discussed the very method of sending surgical strike on common man?

2)      Finance minister claims that RBI was preparing this moment by printing enough replacement currencies?  If so, what measures was taken to prevent the news leaking to some people within the government? Government cannot dismiss Arvind Kejriwal’s questions as liars since there are conflicting news coming out from market.

3)      If RBI was planning to replace the currency, why don’t they release 500 and 1000 denominations which will ease the public in conducting their daily expenses?  Note that this won’t require calibrating the machine since the dimension of the currency is similar.

4)      What is the necessity of releasing 2000 denominations now while the common man is struggling to exchange in market due to lack of lower denominations?

5)      Does RBI know that calibrating the machine to accommodate 2000 notes will take many days including dry run with software and system? 

6)      Why not RBI discreetly releasing only 100 notes in ATM across the country for a month prior to announcement?

7)      What is the purpose of this strike?  Black money or tax evasion by cash parellel economy?

8)      To my mind, the surgical strike is not against black money since government has the list of black money hoarders and why don’t governments pass a law in parliament or use existing law to arrest those black money hoarders from the list? Why does government need to push them by suffering common men?  Is government is spineless to expose them in public?

9)      So, the surgical strike is against parallel unorganized cash economy, not against black money.  So, why does the government need to fool ordinary people like me by naming it fight against black money?

10)   While cash economy is part and parcel of the nation and if government want to people to shift from cash to cashless economy, why do they need to penalize 200% on the people who deposit the amount?    

11)   Don’t they throw the cash on water or burn it since they would be paying almost 90% of the deposited amount as tax and penalties?  What does the government benefit by destroying those valid notes?

12)   Don’t they know that destroying valid notes will create huge pressure on market flow, thus depriving the livelihood of millions people?  If so, what is government’s compensation to them since they are the victims?

13)   Government is trumpeting that yesterday alone 58 thousand Crore Rupees deposited in bank, but how much they returned as exchange?  Because, it is advised people to exchange only 4,000 and excess to be deposited. 

14)   How much we are losing on daily basis in market due to no cash? Where are the data?

15)   Total Indian economy is crippled due to millions of people on road leaving their works.  Will government issues a white paper about this historic decision and subsequent effects including data?

Every decision is validated, appreciated or condemned after its outcome.  We will applaud the government if the outcome is as desired, otherwise, Modi is shining only for those urban elites and not with common men and women.  India is made of common men and women, not urban elites.  Vajpayee made the mistake of believing India is shining under his rule and Modi will land up in same destination if he did not learn from Vajpayee mistakes.