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Sunday 13 November 2016

The chattering classes just don’t get this surgical strike


November 13, 2016, 12:00 am IST Swapan Dasgupta in Right & Wrong | India | TOI An unintended consequence of the demonetisation of the Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 banknotes last Tuesday evening was the onrush of concern among the chattering classes — at least those that love to proffer their views on social media — for their maids and maalis. “How will they manage?” became the overriding concern of that section which would rather have preferred that the Prime Minister expressed his concern about the black money menace and then proceeded to do absolutely nothing about it. Don’t get me wrong. It is not that there wasn’t any dislocation of everyday life or that there was no panic triggered by rumours and a paucity of information. There was. The Pakistani Uber driver in London who told me that India had confiscated the money of its people may have been wilfully gloating, but he was also reflecting the panic that inevitably sets in when something so dramatic happens abruptly. And the section of India that is either too poor or too disconnected from the media to gauge the implications of such a drastic financial move is quite understandably nervous, even if they have never seen a Rs 1,000 note. This is also to be not unmindful of the chattering classes’ real concern for the welfare of their maids, maalis and vegetable vendors. In all likelihood, they were aware of the dramatic consequences of the government move and, indeed, may have earlier even argued for zero tolerance of black money — while, at the same time, pointing out that no government would do anything because the politicians were part of the problem. It is just that they did not want Prime Minister Narendra Modi to run away with all the credit for finally acting on his promise to effect a surgical strike on a problem that had begun plaguing India since the late 1960s, after socialism, high taxes and plain venality forced many Indians to make dishonesty a way of life. Just as their notional faith in democracy didn’t prevent the angst-ridden classes in America from coming out on the streets to protest Donald Trump’s victory in a free election, the disquiet in India was not against the measure but the man whose political will made such a bold step possible. Indians takes selfie with new currency notes of 2000 Indian rupee in Ahmadabad, India, Friday, Nov. 11, 2016. Delivering one of India's biggest-ever economic upsets, Prime Minister Narendra Modi this week declared the bulk of Indian currency notes no longer held any value and told anyone holding those bills to take them to banks to deposit or exchange them. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki) NOTEWORTHY: Modi’s calculation that voters will appreciate the purpose of the move is being tested That indeed is the issue that baffles the bleeding hearts. The fact that a politician had directed a strike that is calculated (among other things) to decimate the rogue war chests of the political class as a whole seems quite inexplicable. After all, conventional wisdom had deemed that election funding was entirely a function of the underground cash economy, as indeed were lucrative businesses in property and trade. Common sense and anecdotal evidence suggests that politicians are inclined to pamper their assured vote banks. Mamata Banerjee, for example, won’t stand up for gender justice on the triple talaq issue because she is far too dependant on the support of conservative Muslim organisations; and the Congress will drag its feet on fast-tracking the citizenship of Hindus and Sikhs from neighbouring countries because it wants that facility to be extended to Bangladeshi Muslims in Assam and West Bengal and even the Rohingyas from Myanmar. By that logic, the BJP would be loath to hit at the material interests of the trading community that has faithfully stood by it for long. It is hardly a state secret that the biggest source of black money generation is trade. What we are witnessing is something quite fascinating — the ability of an elected leader to use his mandate to look beyond sectional interests and address the national interest. Modi has actually taken a huge political risk by offending an influential section of the BJP’s traditional support for the sake of a higher national purpose, one that is calculated to make India more wholesome, if properly followed through. In 2007, during the Gujarat assembly election, Modi had come under intense party pressure to waive the dues and the prosecution of more than one lakh farmers caught pilfering electricity through unauthorised connections. At that time Modi had privately told his colleagues that he would rather step down from leadership than agree to this short-sighted amnesty. His calculation was that the electorate will appreciate forthrightness and loftiness of purpose. In Gujarat, the approach paid off. It is now on test in the whole of India. What we are witnessing is the leadership of a man who looks far beyond narrow calculations and towards the rebuilding of India as a world power. His audacity is admirable, but equally praiseworthy is his vision of India’s future

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