Modi has just repackaged old schemes
The PM did not reply to the promise which he had made that if things do not normalise within 50 days he should be taken to task... He has just announced some so-called sops to take the heat off his government...
Obfuscation, diversion and smokescreens have become commonplace with the Narendra Modiled NDA government. The Prime Minister has given two speeches in the past one week. One was the address to the nation on New Year’s Eve while the other was at the election rally in Lucknow. In both these speeches, we wanted to know details about demonetisation, but facts were assiduously avoided by Mr Modi.
For 50 days the PM led this nation to standing in lines to get their own, legitimate and banked money. Figures show that more than 100 people lost their lives in this process. Now at least we ought to know whether the stated objectives of demonetisation have been achieved or not? How much black money has been unearthed by the government post-November 8? What was the amount and volume of counterfeit currency which was detected? What impact did it have on terror funding? What was the total volume of old currency returned to banks? These are the questions on which the PM should have elaborated his stance. Instead, on New Years’ Eve, he appeared as if he was donning the role of finance minister, repackaging old schemes.
If we do some back-of-theenvelope checks on the socalled sops announced by the PM, it will be clear that all this is repackaged. The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana is a revised version of the Indira Awas Yojana that ran prior to the NDA regime. It is the schematic version of housing for all commitment of the government under which it wants to build 20 million houses by 2022. The provision for Ru Pay and other debit cards against Kisan Credit Cards has existed since 2012, but it has not been mandatorily provided to all farmers taking credit. The RBI has since May 2012 provided that banks can give debit cards to farmers to withdraw credit through ATMs. In November 2012, the UPA finance minister announced that 19 banks would provide Ru Pay cards to farmers availing KCC. A reply in the Lok Sabha shows that 56.60 lakh Ru Pay cards against KCC were issued in 2013-14.
Now let’s come to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), the fact is that only five per cent of MSMEs have access to institutional loans; over 95 per cent of these businesses take loans from informal sources at steep interest rates. Besides, this measure should have been accompanied by a shoring up of the capital base of the Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for micro and small enterprises.
The PM added that the government will not allow them to pay senior citizens anything less than eight per cent on deposits up to `7.5 lakhs made for 10 years. Fact check: Under the Senior Citizen Saving Scheme (SCSS) at post offices, interest at the rate of 8.5 per cent per annum is given on deposits of up to `15 lakhs with a maturity period of five years. There does not seem to be much of a gain for senior citizens if one were to compare interest rates on deposits of similar or even shorter tenure offered currently.
In all, the PM as usual did not reply to the promise which he had made that if things do not normalise within 50 days he should be taken to task. All the restrictions imposed by the RBI are very much present. He has just announced some so-called sops to take the heat off his government for demonetisation, which has been a colossal blunder done by the Modi government on the poor farmer and the common man of this country. K.C. Mittal is the Congress’ legal and human rights department secretary