By Ananya Guha
No matter how divided the Nation is on demonetization. one thing is very clear. It has given us more than a jolt if not a shock. Black money as I understand it is money not accounted for, not shown in ‘ white’ for income tax liability. So one way of protecting it is to hoard it and what better place could be the house that one lives in? It is also money received on account of bribes, which could run into prodigious sums. It may or may not be directly related to corruption. But it probably is. If you are not declaring your money you are evading tax. If you are evading tax and stashing money in the crevices of your house, which many do, and they are not only businessmen but professionals, then you are accumulating black money. So the country’s super powers, those who think and thought they could get away from anything because of their money power were in for a rude shock. They were too numbed even to react. The poor were happy, because they thought that the corrupt would have it. The middle class looked unperturbed, but many are vulnerable to making profits by wrong ways of course, but their conscience was probed. So they made frantic bee lines to deposit their money. The panic attack came more in the wake of a conscience attack- what if this amount which I got was ill gotten, forgetting what he said earlier- everyone takes bribes!
Those who store money in houses the petty traders, small shopkeepers also know that they can deposit the money slowly and safely. But if they have been avoiding income tax they better be careful. They need to solicit advice from their Big Bs. The fake currencies doing rounds with gusto must have been another reason for the government’s move. Counterfeit notes stall circulation of good money and create a shortage of lesser denominations. That is why perhaps, getting hundred rupee notes in banks was a problem.
But the main target would be illicit money in general. While honest tax payers are earning honestly, the unscrupulous are thinking of hoarding and evasion. They must be taught a lesson, and the fear of the devil,must be firmly injected into their minds. While a few in the country flaunt muscle power the poor have not even bank accounts to think of. The daily wage labourer, the vegetable vendor, the people who sell betel nuts or fruits on the road side, have almost nothing but their daily earning spent on a daily basis. What savings can they think of? And here we have doctors, engineers, lawyers, flaunting houses in different parts of the country as a grotesque prestige symbol. And of course who forgets the good old politician, who in order to make his money pristine white, even ventures into starting hotels, guest houses and what have you. The disparity of wealth in this country is vulgar and nauseating. This measure was needed. And it is good that the country got a shock, no matter how many erudite economic theories are bandied. The counter argument is that many will work out solutions and get their unholy money converted. How? As long as this is anticipated some embargo in some form or the other should remain. The root of the ills in this country is the crass inequity in wealth. This has resulted in militant movements and terrorism,. Naxalism is one such manifestation. The disgruntlement in North East India is another such, as the classes developed in the societies with access to money power, are great friends with venal politicians or quasi politicians in the corridors of power. So what happens to the labourer, the street vendor, the vegetable seller, or the young graduate in search of employment? ‘There are no jobs,’ is the reply. But paradoxically and sadly there is profusion of wealth and money.
So, this is exactly the rude shock that we needed. Ill gotten gains harm the economy. More so they are a virus in the flotsam and jetsam of a poor population, desperately trying to eke out a living, and climbing the ladders of social justice. No matter how much we talk about democracy, it cannot exist if there is no equitable or at least scaling down of wealth through illegal profiteering. The roads to compassion can never lie in exploitation. People who can afford to employ a retinue of domestic help are the ones who treat them callously. That unequal money is the source of a vicious cycle in India: poverty, unemployment, violence, indifferent heath care is something that should be our next massive ‘ surgical strike’. And the sooner our classes realise it the better. The next stages for employment, welfare measures for the poor, must be carefully and methodically staged. Only then, will be there a semblance of hope, rather than listening to sermons from English educated babus, writing novels, indulging in media terrorism and sitting in a pivoted world of technology.
The shameless show of wealth has been illustrated recently in Shillong, on the aftermath of demonetization. Apparently forty to fifty lakhs of hard cash was found in the premises of a well known religious institution, committed to social service over centuries. The person who did it obviously thought that such an amount is dispensable for a show of false charity. It is these people who dreadfully need the spiritual antidote, and need to go more on the confessional way.