Even after a year, people of the country are still in the dark about the benefits of demonetisation. As a matter of fact, both the ruling and opposition parties are making too much noise making it really difficult for the common man to judge the effect of demonetisation. On the first anniversary of demonetisation while the Prime Minister released a video in his twitter account, opposition leaders Rahul Gandhi led a protest march in election-bound Surat terming the move by the government as an ‘organised loot’. But what is the reality? Was the effect of demonetisation too bad as the opposition is claiming or is the government right in saying that it was an attack against corruption and black money, which has yielded positive result?
Before going further in to the debate who is right and who is wrong, let us discuss about simple economics. Demonetisation is a step which not many economists recommend to get rid of corruption and black money. But at the same time, this method had been adopted by many countries for achieving the same goal. In some cases the move yielded good result, while in other instances demonetisation was not so successful. So it cannot be said with certainty that demonetisation is good or bad. So the primary duty of all concerned was to be patient before coming to any conclusion. But both the sides did not perform the role that they were supposed to play. While the opposition parties put the government in a dock for taking such a decision, the government always maintained that it would cure Indian economy from all ills. In other words, both sides were over-zealous to prove a point either in favour of note ban or against demonetisation.
But now after a year it is time now for both sides to tender unqualified apology to the people of the country for overreacting about demonetisation. While the government can be given benefit of doubt for announcing note ban, it can’t deny that the implementation was faulty. Certainly such a decision was not taken over night. The decision came after burning lot of midnight oil. Then why couldn’t the government print enough currency notes so that people didn’t have to wait in queue at the banks and ATMS? How did it happen that even before the new notes reached to the people, it was recovered from black marketers and touts? Surely, the government was not watchful enough to make its promise of cleansing Indian economy in to a reality. On the other hand, the opposition parties were more interested in playing politics and virtually did not cooperate with the government to lesser the burden of the common people. Rather, from day one they started highlighting the shortcomings of such a decision and did not give proper advice to the government. It’s a pity that even in such a scenario the opposition parties were more interested in playing a destructive role instead of playing a constructive one. As a result, after a year while there is no shortage of currency in the country, we are yet to be informed about the benefits of note ban. The government also is at fault for not being conclusive as most of the money came back to the system that initially left the government dumbstruck. However, at the same time it surely will have its benefits because many shell companies were detected in the process and many high value properties came under scanner. it also suddenly increased the tax-base in the whole country that will surely benefit the exchequer. The terror funding link will be difficult if not impossible to prove for the government. Unfortunately for the ruling government, DeMo cannot be used for the next elections unless there is something more conclusive than now.
However, the political parties need let the people of the country move forward, the time has come.
