PM'S SWACHH BHARAT BROOM SWEEPS AWAY ROT IN ONE STROKE!

By Ruma Dubey

Kudos to our PM, Narendra Modi. This internal ‘surgical strike’ against black money is a very bold move; it required tremendous amount of courage because in many ways it was hitting out against the very people who could have funded his elections and his party.

This is a remarkable, out-of-the-box way to try and bring down black money in one sweeping stroke. It also gives one the dual advantage of putting an end, once and for all to this menace of counterfeit notes, which is seen mainly in 500 and 1000 denominations. Yes, it is a great move against black and terror money, all in one single stroke!

Having said all this, what is also very apparent is that today will be a day of complete chaos. With banks and ATMs closed, where will the money come from? As such ATM machines were dispensing 500 and 1000 notes, very little 100 rupees thus today; people in the cities could face an acute shortage of money. This is indeed the best way forward to a cashless era but our systems are not yet in place to deal with this – imagine there is a wedding in a house today. Can you even begin to comprehend the kind of panic they will be going through? Pandits by default accept only cash and so do most of the marriage arrangers – mandap, caterers, decorator, jewelers, et al. So suddenly for all of them to today be told that they will be paid either through a card or direct bank transfer or cheque or PayTM, it will take a while getting used to. But panditji’s accepting dakshina is white is something we simply cannot imagine!

Yes, the smaller traders and businesses will suffer and many might down their shutters today but there is simply no other way out here. This has to be done if we want to forge ahead to curb black money. Mainly those at the domestic help levels – drivers, house helps, nurses; all of them will be prone to a lot of hardships today; it is our duty to step up and educate them about how they can exchange the 500 and 1000 notes in banks/post offices and help them out with money wherever required. Farmers too will be in a quandary as they too get all their money for the harvest – its kharif harvest time, in cash. They too will need to be educated and helped to get over this temporary tough time.

This situation needs to be handled well and not like a banana republic. Surely the Govt has thought about the repercussions before announcing this and asked banks to take steps accordingly. This should not be allowed to spiral out of control and therein lay the crux of this courageous move succeeding.

For the stock market, if looked at pragmatically, this is a great move towards transparency in the long run. But it is unlikely that the market will look at it like that – real estate, film and film activity based companies, jewellery companies will be hardest hit today as major part of their transactions happen only in cash. We could see stock prices of companies from these sectors suffering the biggest blow today.

At the same time, while Indians are busy counting their notes, America is counting its votes and that event too will play out. Globally, that is the big thing and by midafternoon, that too will have start having its impact – by then we will start getting more clarity about how this will now move forward.

For those of us having cash; not in crores and sack full but a few lakhs should do what is the smartest thing to do – deposit the cash and pay up the 33% tax rather than allowing the money to become worthless.  And those who are having crores, well, they are the ones who will be criticizing vociferously against this swachha Bharat abhiyaan of the PM!  

The small 1% or the super rich of India might have got a whiff of this much earlier and taken necessary steps – that is the word out on the street. But for the rest of us 99%, this move is historic and we need to applaud it!

Wonder what will happen to those scores of Govt employees who have truckloads of cash stashed away? Yes, many PSU employees will be badly hit too!  Now that is what we call hitting where it hurts the most!