SAMUDRAMANTHAN

SAMUDRAMANTHAN

People are becoming impatient and have started getting demoralized thinking that greedy corrupt rich Indians have successfully circumvented the system. Roped in bank managers, made a racket and have almost converted black money to white by depositing in the bank. By mere putting in the bank money cannot change color. There will be prolonged period of investigation of these accounts and many skeletons will tumble out sooner or later.  

A very big exercise is underway and it would take time to get the results. It is like Samudramanthan. For days churning will take place. There will be ifs and buts, ups and downs, cat and mouse games. There will be long periods of investigations and raids. There will be false propaganda by detractors of demonetization and people having self interest in securing black money. There will be some blind followers opposing demonetization for the sake of opposing as their parties oppose demonetization for obvious reasons.

Some bank managers are indulging in unscrupulous dealings and because of which people are not getting their due withdrawals. The government should keep raiding and clamping on such managers mercilessly in order to protect commoners and their legitimate demand for money.

Some people think becoming cashless overnight is not possible and it is stupidity what government is asking. They think India is not ready for cashless economy. Any such large scale migration from cash to cashless would take time but with Government being proactive and individuals putting in their efforts the time can be telescoped very easily. We should have resolve to make our Nation more and more corruption free and one step towards that is cashless economy. If we agree that we want to be a less corrupt society then we must migrate towards cashless transactions. If we transact 20 % cashless and 80 % with cash we must try to migrate slowly in next couple of months to maximize cashless transactions. With little application one can go upto 50 – 50 % and with concerted effort we can achieve 80% cashless by value.

Also as a nation, if today there are 20 % cashless transactions government should aim at 60 % cashless by end of March and 70 to 80 % cash less transaction by value by end of next year in the first phase. This is possible. When I interact many people say that in remote villages cashless is difficult. Yes it is difficult and no rational thinker would want to switch to cashless overnight. As a nation if we can achieve 70 % cashless by value it is enough as a first step migration. Then these remote villages can be considered in 30% cash transactions and can be converted into cashless by end of phase 2.  

People say, earlier Modi said war was against black money. Now he says - go cashless. He is changing goal post. I say, every step is towards cleaner transparent transactions. To ease out black money, demonetization was required. Cashless transactions are key to enlarge tax net. For GST, cashless transactions are beneficial. To curb black money generation cashless would give traceability. We should not see things in isolation. Demonetisation and cashless transactions complement each other in curbing black money. The first phase of demonetization is now getting over and therefore cashless phase is being propagated aggressively by the government.  All these years there used to be talk of black money by political parties, when in opposition. When in power, there used to be only lip service by various parties. For the first time a party in power and a decisive PM has proactively started war against black money. All these years BJP was considered as a party of traders and in spite of this the PM has taken such a strong step speaks volumes of his intentions and will to take on all adversaries in this fight against corruption.

This samudramanthan will take time. It is a long drawn process. Patience, trust and resolve is solicited from those Indians who want their country to curb the black money menace.