LUTYENS ZONE WORKS TO DERAIL PM MODI’S CURRENCY MOVE

The public and economic dislocation caused in the aftermath of the currency-based surgical strike has shown to those officials close to the PM the importance of ensuring administrative reform at an early date.

Associates of Narendra Modi say that from the start of his innings as Prime Minister of India, it was clear from his approach how far he actually was from the characterisation of Modi as vindictive. PM Manmohan Singh sent one of his own Cabinet colleagues to jail and was well on the way to a second meeting the same fate, even while others were made to resign after allegations of gross im- propriety. On the contrary, Prime Minister Modi ensured that an official clean chit was given to the then Minister for Coal (Manmohan Singh) during the precise period when numerous allocations were made on the verbal and “unsigned chit” recommendations of key UPA members. No other UPA-era minister has been the subject of even an FIR, much less a CBI prosecution. Indeed, the UPA- chosen director of the CBI, Ranjit Sinha and many other officials were allowed to serve out their terms with dignity and retire with traditional honour. Many key positions within the Modi-led NDA government remain filled by officials who were active in the service of UPA ministers, including some who have been reported as having facilitated illegal transactions, including through the stock, commodity and currency markets. Indeed, several at the top of the present government’s civilian bureaucracy have long had close and open contact with the Lutyens Zone, includ- ing with Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who has long been the uncrowned empress of this pool of resourceful and influential policymakers.

However, the fact remains that Narendra Modi is an outsider to the Lutyens Zone, and is known for his patriotism, integrity and refusal to act as a facilitator of vested interests nourished over decades by the Lutyens Zone. Hence, from the start of his term, the Lutyens Zone and its component groups have been silently working to undermine the Prime Minister and sabotage or at the least slow down the transformational measures that he has regularly been introducing since the past two years. Along with this, an entire “samizdat” industry has been developed that is designed to discredit the Prime Minister, and this despite his expansive and accepting approach towards those who were all powerful in past administrations. Senior officials in sync with the desire of Modi for transformation of the economy and the governance system warn that the currency measures announced by the Prime Minister on 8 November are being sought to be sabotaged such that public anger will swell to the detriment of the NDA. They are doing this in the context of the reality that the withdrawal of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes amounting to 85% of the total money supply (as against less than 1% of the money supply in the 1978 measure targeting Rs 1,000 notes) affect practically all the 1. 26 billion people of the country. Should the measure go sour, the BJP as a party will pay a heavy price at the hustings.

The public and economic dislocation caused in the aftermath of the currencybased surgical strike announced by Prime Minister N.D. Modi on 8 November has shown to those officials close to him the importance of ensuring administrative reform at an early date. “Without an efficiently functioning government machinery, the historic plans of Prime Minister Modi will