The ability to evade identification while purchasing large quantities of gold and other precious jewellery is a move aimed at favouring some relatively richer groups while denying ordinary people their basic socio-economic rights.
THE Narendra Modi government made its supposed determination to end corruption in India its signature theme. The massive damaged one by demonetisation and the continuing chaos produced by the flawed introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) have all been justified on the grounds of reducing the possibilities of corruption and tax avoidance. Similarly, the imposition of Aadhaar requirements on the population for access to all manner of publicly provided goods and services is regularly justified on the grounds of reducing “leakages” and misappropriation of benefits. The Prime Minister has sought to burnish his image as an anti-corruption crusader through emotional appeals and dramatic public claims that he is willing to be sacrificed for the larger good of “cleaning up” the country.
Yet, like so many other policy initiatives of this government, the heavily publicised anti-corruption moves also were mostly about optics and hype rather than substantive change since the quiet, careful and systematic measures that could have dented various types of corrupt practices at different levels were rarely undertaken. This is a government that has sought to push many more aspects of government policy and implementation under a shroud of secrecy, regularly denying requests under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. It has aggressively gone after dissenters and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that seek to bring some accountability into official functioning, denying them space and seeking to dry up their sources of funding. More than three and a half years into its tenure, it has yet to appoint a Lok Pal. Nevertheless, through all this, the drama being enacted of a government determined to end corruption has been given prime billing in all public statements.
This story is from the November 10, 2017 edition of FRONTLINE.
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This story is from the November 10, 2017 edition of FRONTLINE.
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