Scent Of The Lotus Bloom

It’s not just about dashing moves, their motive has to reach people. Modi knows it.

- Bhavna Vij-Aurora

JUST as his government was hitting the halfway mark, Narendra Modi told the BJP Parliamentary Party that demonetisation was not the end but the beginning of a “long, deep and constant” battle against black money and corruption. Even as the desk-thumping members passed a unanimous resolution endorsing his “great crusade”, the prime minister reiterated that the note-ban was no sudden move. “Hum apne patte dheere-dheere kholte hain (we open our cards gradually),” he told them on November 22. This one sentence was an indication that the bold move was part of a larger plan and “bigger changes” were in the offing.

Outlook spoke to several people in the government and the party, including ministers, MPs and bureaucrats, and got a sense that the November 8 note-ban was a calculated risk that was as much needed politically as it was to fight unethical officialdom and a parallel economy.

This halftime move has brought the government to a cusp of change from which there is no turning back. More reforms are expected in the months to come. Government circles are abuzz with talks of a “bumper budget” for 2017-18, I-T reforms, increased tax exemption limit to Rs 4 lakh and benefits for small traders and farmers. A debate is on already on the need for poll reforms to curb the use of black money.

Minister of state for Information and Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore told Outlook that the government had “just played the first ball”, and there will be further decisions to curb the shadow economy and corruption. The government “is keen to go in for simultaneous elections” that will bring about the much-needed re-forms in the electoral system.