Manmohan versus Modi
It has been a month since and now clearly it is a battle
between eloquence and silence. It is a battle between two prime ministers with
their given styles, one with penchant
for loud which becomes cacophonous, and the other given to the classic not very
popular in consumption but an evergreen break as noise becomes irksome. It is
the battle of the two unquestionably honest, one who has demonetized the
currency and the other who had devalued it as finance minister of the country. Devaluation
had worked but is demonetization going to bear favorable results is a question
that needs to be answered given the shock that the fiscal architecture has
received through it.
Is this a road to hell paved with good intentions as opined by
the ex prime minister? Is cash that flows in the economy a singular factor
constituting the parallel economy or are there other factors such as land,
gold, gems real estate, the monies stacked in safe havens across the globe as
also the nature of political funding that forms the edifice of corruption constituting the major and lion’s share of
what makes the parallel economy? Extremely large part of the business
transactions in the economy is dealt in cash as also saved so and though at the
micro level these are small, at the macro, this adds up to the unignorable
share of the GDP which has clearly taken the beating to the extent of no less
than forty percent, despite which the common man sportingly braves things for
the Prime Minister in some sadistic relief as some rich come under the radar. Modi
for them is their commander against the rich who questionably or
otherwise have authored their misery for decades since independence. The irony as of now is that the poor continue
to opt for a surgical intervention for the cancer which lies elsewhere.
Modi is a man of
action as Obama called him but it is the same president who called Manmohan his
guru. Both the Prime ministers are men of best intentions genuinely worried
with the precarious affairs of the state, one termed as given too much too
serious consideration of the consequences of his government’s decisions to be
termed paralytic in conduct and the other considered by the predecessor as impetuous.
If Modi has succeeded
in making his predecessor speak he has only helped the nation because what
comes from ex prime minister in reaction to demonetization is something that
Modi and his government would do well if they deem it their duty to explain
things pointed by Manmohan to the common man who precariously clings hope in
some distant future.
Modi should have shown
up in Parliament, if he has shied, he has left a breach in his fort which in
time will become bigger and menace him together with the increasing number of
fronts that he has opened in his hitherto exhausted tenure.
The common man stands
for Modi and promises to keep queuing
for the two thousand buck but as time passes he may see reason in joining
chorus with the old and seasoned economist whose question presently may be lost
to din of the troll but to quote him “ history would treat me kindly “. And history, given his
worries for the nation, perhaps would.
