There is enough evidence to suggest that the people in general have accepted the Prime Minister’s initiative to cleanse the fi nancial system. They have warmly responded to his appeal to bear the consequences of the decision on the 500 and 1,000 rupee notes. True, it has caused enormous diffi culties to the common people who have been queueing up in front of banks. That no riotous situation arose anywhere, though there were petty quarrels, is proof that the people are with the government. They know that to achieve something great, they have to pay a price. It may take a few more weeks for the people to go leisurely to the nearest ATM to withdraw money. Political parties have a responsibility to help the government tide over its problem of making available enough currency notes to replace the old notes which are no longer legal tender.
It is a measure of the government’s earnestness that it has allowed public utility services to accept the old notes for a few more days. After all, the aim of the exercise — easily the most ambitious since Independence — is to rid the fi nancial system of counterfeit notes, reduce corruption and take the anti-black money efforts to new heights. No other step could have been nobler and yet what has been the parties’ response? The Congress, which is primarily responsible for the mess that the Modi government tries to tackle, has been criticising the move on specious grounds. Its former fi nance minister P Chidambaram tried to pooh-pooh the decision claiming that demonetisation of higher-value notes was a suggestion he had turned down.
Party chief Rahul Gandhi has, as usual, been resorting to balderdash. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has been busy cooking up conspiracy theories to portray it as a scam. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee should have been taking steps to ease people’s problems rather than penning poems to ridicule the PM. How one wishes they saw the nation’s interests fi rst!