Did Modi Miss The Target in His Precision Strike?
(by Sakshi internet desk)
Hyderabad: Did some people know about the new currency well in advance? Was it leaked to some political bigwigs and business big-shots? Despite the tall claims of secrecy in the process of demonetization by the Modi government, the factual picture tells us an entirely different story. This act which is being depicted as a ‘surgical strike’ on black money, has actually brought misery to the common people whereas questions are being asked as to whether the real holders of the black money might had already siphoned off everything.
Some of the posts in the micro-blogging sites like Twitter do confirm these doubts. Just three days prior to this November 8 announcement, Sanjeev Kamboj, co-convener of BJP Punjab unit’s legal cell, had posted some photographs of the bundles of new 2,000 rupees notes. This issue was raised by Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday. Apart from Kamboj, some other people had also made some tweets about the upcoming new notes on November 5 along with the photographs.
For instance, on November 5, a person named Mohit Gulati had tweeted that the new thousand rupees notes would be coming within a fortnight. He had also posted the photographs of the currency bundles which were in pink color. When one Mandeep Ashiya wanted to know how he could manage to get those photos, Mohit replied in denial saying, “bhai… confidential hai… sorry”. Some other person also expressed the doubt saying that RBI would never print the value of the note in Devanagari script. Somebody commented that was that true while there was no official confirmation yet from the RBI. Interestingly, Mohit had also posted a note mentioning that he had gotten a note which contained the number 786.
Apart from the above, on November 5, BJP leader Sanjeev Kamboj also posted the photos of the bundles of 2000 rupees and tweeted, “Reserve Bank to issue rupees 2000 currency in India soon”. Now the question being raised is how come these people knew about this even as it was a top secret. That too, just three days prior to November 8 when PM Modi made the announcement. Journalist Ankita Chaudhary posted the photograph which was posted in Twitter by Mohit Gulati on her blog in Times of India website on November 6. She wrote about this in her article published her blog, “Twitter abuzz with new Rs 2,000 banknote from RBI. Leaked photos or a hoax?” Also, some news stories published in Gujarati newspapers have now surfaced which had hinted about an imminent demonetization move as early as in April.
Is this move a course correction of a grave mistake?
On one hand, many people are now coming to know that some people were aware of this move well in advance, and on the other hand, some other story is also doing circles about the banning of Rs 1000 note. Last December, a big error occurred during the printing of 1000 rupee currency notes. RBI sources admitted that there was a defect in printing of 10 million notes of denominations of Rs 1000. Actually they were mistakenly passed on without the security thread which is very crucial in the currency notes. This security thread contains the words RBI and 1000 in English whereas the word Bharat is printed in Devanagari script.
But this security thread was completely missed in those defective currency notes. Concerned officers had shipped these notes into the RBI currency chests without noticing this defect. In January 2016, a cache of 200 million notes were released along with the above mentioned defective notes into circulation. After realizing this much later, all the banks were instructed by the authorities to re-direct those defective notes if and when they receive the same.
This error is said to have taken place in the security press itself which is located in Nashik and run by Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India (SPMCIL). ‘The Hindu’ had published a news story on this issue on January 1, 2016 titled with 'RBI tells banks to replace defective 1,000-rupee notes' Two concerned officers were said to be suspended in this case.
By March 31, 2015 there were 5,612 million Rs 1000 denominated notes in circulation. In terms of value, these notes constituted 39.3 per cent of the total value of notes in circulation. Due to this error, it has become very difficult to differentiate real and fake notes. In fact real notes have become as fake notes. Hectic brainstorming went on between RBI and concerned governmental officials for the past 7-8 months over this issue. Finally they have come to a conclusion that this issue would be resolved only through scrapping of Rs 1000 denominated notes. They were not ready to accept their mistake as it would hamper the reputation of the GOI.
It’s in this context that they are said to have decided to move on with this measure, declaring it as a war on black money. They decided to scrap Rs 500 denominated notes as well in order to make sure that no suspicion is raised. It’s worth mention that RBI has declared that it would bring a new Rs 1000 denominated note with latest features.
Despite of a lot of criticisms that Rs 1000 denominated note was leading to stashing of black money in abundance, yet the government has brought in a new Rs 2000 note. Also, a new note of Rs 1000 would follow soon. But the leading economists of the country are skeptical about this. They are warning against these measures as they would inevitably lead to further piling up of black money. Though the motive behind this move might be good, but it seems as PM Modi has missed the right target, they opine.
