• S.K. Nigam

They are not as intellectual as they say.... One day I went to my place to see them standing in the queue, so I was thinking what to say so that they all would be happy, so I said, “There are patriots in the queue…... Now everyone started smiling and said yes yesyes… (pausing for a while and then starts singing) We are patriots, there is a huge crowd standing in the queue, India’s destiny is being decorated with troubles.” So they said, we will continue, Netaji. This is the scene of Delhi BJP State President and MP Manoj Tiwari, Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly Vijender Gupta and BJP’s national spokesperson and current MP Sudhanshu Trivedi amidst applause and laughter at the ongoing party at the residence of Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly Vijendra Gupta with the BJP leaders, including women leaders. On one hand, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s surprise announcement of demonetization of 500 and 1000 currency notes had shocked the entire country, while on the other hand, the BJP leadership was critical of the helpless condition of people standing in the ATM queues during Demonetization, in which 105 citizens were killed. They were making a disgusting mockery of the intellectual capacity of the people of this country. The video is available on YouTube. Although there are countless stories of rhetoric and corruption hidden behind them in the last ten years of Modi’s regime, but the purpose of this article is to shed light on one of the most important socio-political sagas of India – the interconnected stories, controversies and outcomes of Demonetization, Electoral Bonds and Corruption within the BJP government, that have left an indelible mark on the country’s political landscape.

On November 08, 2016, at 08:00 pm, the whole of India became restless due to the announcement of demonetization by Modi ji, but the BJP leadership and media started being hailed as a masterstroke to this policy of monetary genocide to eliminate corruption and black money, fight against terrorism and money laundering, to propel India towards a digital, cashless future. The objectives of demonetization seemed good on the surface. However, the ground reality told a different story. Due to this government negligence, common citizens had to stand in long queues all night long outside banks and empty ATMs facing severe cash crunch, leading to nationwide chaos and disruption of daily life, leading to the death of over 100 common people. There was a claim that due to demonetization, fake notes would become junk, but within a few days of demonetization, pictures of fake notes of Rs. 2000 started floating on social media, and by June 2017, fake notes worth more than Rs.11 crores were also busted. This proved that demonetization had no effect on fake currency. Then it was told that terrorist funding would end and terrorism would be curbed. On the contrary, a few days after demonetization, terrorists attacked our army in Assam on 19 November, another attack took place in Kashmir on 22 November and another major attack took place in Nagrota on 29 November, where 7 soldiers of our country were martyred.

After almost 2 years of hard work, when the Reserve Bank completed the counting of notes, it was found that 99.3% of the demonetized currency had returned to the banks. It was widely publicized that about 30% of the cash in our country is black money, while SBI had said in December 2016, a month after demonetization, that they expected about Rs 2.5 lakh crore of the Rs 15.4 lakh crore will not be returned to the bank, but nothing like this happened, 99% of the money came back. Now two reasons for this are understood, firstly, either people did not have as much black money as the government expected, or secondly, people found new ways to deposit money and turn their black money into white. Most likely, people with black money would have taken advantage of the loopholes in this policy and converted their black money into white. The value of demonetized currency was Rs.15.44 lakh crore and currency worth Rs. 15.31 lakh crore has returned to the banks. Therefore, to save the shame of failure, the remaining Rs.16,000 crore is being termed as ‘Black Money’. But the truth of this statement is that a lot of this money is not black money like Rs.3300 crores are kept in Nepal and Bhutan, which the Indian government is not able to take back and an equally huge amount is the amount which is not fully recovered, it has been kept with our NRIs spread across the world and that too has not returned. So overall, not even 0.1% of the black money was recovered from the so-called ‘Surgical Strike’ on ‘Black Money’.

The arbitrary decision of demonetization derailed the economy, hit traders and small entrepreneurs hard, plunging them not only into uncertainty but also brought a tsunami of pain and unemployment to millions of people. It is noteworthy that instead of considering the opinions of the educated leaders and economists who criticized it, Prime Minister Modi kept making fun of them. Former Prime Minister and world-renowned economist Dr. Manmohan Singh had described demonetization as organized loot. Amidst the allegations of selective leaks and insider trading, if anyone benefited in implementing demonetization – it is the BJP. During the demonetization years 2015-16 and 2016-17, the BJP’s income increased by 81.18 per cent from Rs. 570.86 crore to Rs. 1,034.27 crore. In the same period, the BJP has spent Rs.700 crore on elections and ‘General Campaigning’. This is the latest data compiled by Delhi-based Association for Democratic Reports (ADR) based on income tax returns filed by political parties across the country. Now the question is how the war on black money, which was cited by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to issue his “Tughlaq diktat” on demonetization, has allowed the BJP to amass huge amounts of money, which has no certificate of having ‘White Money’?

“Na Khaunga, Na KhaaneDoonga”- when Narendra Modi stood before the nation and declared, he made a solemn pledge to the people of India. It was the promise of a new era of integrity, honesty, governance where corruption would be rooted out and accountability would reign supreme. But as the layers of secrecy surrounding electoral bond donations are being exposed, it has become clear that, just like their promise of Rs. 15 lakh in every Indian’s account and 2 crore jobs every year, it is a lie - It was just a phrase. The foundation of democracy has been shaken, as BJP is taking undue advantage from huge donations of undisclosed amount in connivance with ED and CBI, thereby weakening the principles of fairness and transparency in our political system. There is also news that the total amount of 21 companies which were raided by ED is Rs. 2471 crore, Rs.55 crore was collected by Aurobindo Pharma of government witness Sharat Reddy in Delhi liquor scam, about Rs. 80 crore was collected by several pharma companies in Gujarat that failed in the investigation. These donations were delivered to BJP. Miraculously, Devendra Fadnavis gave waiver of property tax of Rs. 285 crore to Torrent Group in Maharashtra and in return this group donated Rs. 185 crore and in return of changing the rules of auction of satellite spectrum in the telecom sector, Bharatiya Airtel Group Donated Rs. 150 crore to BJP. BJP has received a total donation of Rs. 8252 crore only through electoral bonds, although the State Bank has made every effort to hide it. Well-done to our Supreme Court which reprimanded the SBI and government regarding the Electoral Bond Scheme and the amendments made in the Representation of the People Act and Company Act and said that these are against the ‘Right to Information’ and the biggest thing is that- it is unconstitutional. But the extent of shamelessness is such that Prime Minister Modi himself has been saying in his election campaigns about this illegal rule passed in 2017, that Modi had created electoral bonds, due to this today you are able to find that who took how much bond and where it was given, otherwise it was not known earlier. In this backdrop, amid allegations of nexus between the BJP government and investigating agencies like the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), it has become common now that these agencies have been selectively targeting opposition leaders while turning a blind eye to allegations of corruption within the ruling party.

The interconnected realities of demonetization, electoral bonds and corruption of the BJP government paint a complex picture of India’s political landscape, which has left the country’s conscious people scratching their heads and wondering about Narendra Modi’s commitment to transparency and accountability. What happened to the phrases? Today, as citizens, we feel cheated by the corruption of BJP who had promised a better future to the people of the country, has betrayed the country only for the benefit of his party and his friend industrialists. Modiji may have cheated the votes of the people of this country with his statements, but the power to hold him and his party accountable is in our hands. Let’s use that power wisely, and make sure the people’s voices are heard loud and clear. After all, in an existent democracy, the power ultimately belongs to the people – and now is the time for us to reclaim it.

(The Author is a writer and Political Analyst)