Falsehoods – It’s all about grabbing power

Having ruled the country for several decades – either directly or indirectly under coalition arrangement with pliable parties – the grand old party [read: Congress] can’t not relish the idea of someone coming from a humble background N Modi being at the helm.

That Modi’s party BJP alone got a majority of its own [never seen before during the last 30 years or so], is of no consequence as the Gandhi family ruled Congress has arrogated to itself an eternal right to govern. This is the only interpretation of Indian democracy that the party understands.

It is this anathema for any other leader [in this case, Modi who arouses maximum hatred] that made Dr Manmohan Singh – following his master’s voice – fume that in the event of the former getting to govern, would prove to be a disaster prime minister.

Since, then not even a day passes without the Congress leaders castigating Modi for his alleged non-performance. With the next general elections less than an year away, it has intensified its propaganda. The urge to unseat him has reached a nadir whereby, they even resort to ‘lies’ to discredit him.

So, they talk of no jobs, large-scale miseries brought in by demonetization, loot of bank money by a handful of industrialists and swallowing of the oil bonanza by the ruling dispensation – to cite only the most prominent ones. The public must get to know the reality on ground zero.

For an economy consistently growing at above 7% [sans 2017-18 when it was slightly lower at 6.7%] during the last 4 years, for someone to even imagine that this happened without persons being put to work is an abhorrent thought. That apart, while replying to the debate on no-confidence motion on July 20, 2018, Modi gave comprehensive data to show that over 10 million jobs were added during 2017-18 alone.

As regards demonetization, the party claims that it did not unearth black money even as it made the poor suffer. True, 99% of the money embodied in old 1000/500 rupee notes came to the banks but what it fails to notice [deliberate or otherwise] is that of this, about Rs 350,000–400,000 crore is suspicious. This amount is under the lens of income tax department and other agencies. Earlier, the agencies had a nightmare chasing the hoarders but now, the latter have been forced to offer themselves for scrutiny by the former.

It has also enabled surge in the number of tax payers from 54 million in 2016-17 to about 70 million in 2017-18. This has led to a massive increase in direct tax collection to over Rs 1000,000 crore. The government has cancelled registration of over 200,000 shell companies [entities which are used to launder black money]. This would not have been possible but for the data on the hoarders of unaccounted cash now available with banks [courtesy, note-ban].

The poor have been impacted positively. First, the surge in deposits with the banks has increased their lendable resources enabling them to give loans to small businesses. Under MUDRA [Micro Units Development Refinance Agency] Yojna, 120 million persons have received loans worth Rs 600,000 crore. Second, the higher tax collection has helped the government garner enough funds for welfare schemes without hurting its overall fiscal consolidation drive.

The charge of Modi – dispensation helping a handful of industrialists loot public sector banks [PSBs] is absolutely baseless. Far from that, it has gone hammer and tongs after the defaulters to recover the loans – those were extended to them indiscriminately under UPA led by Congress. Of the 12 NPA [non-performing assets] accounts referred to the National Company Law Tribunal [NCLT] under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code [IBC] in June 2017, the banks are expected to recover over Rs 125,000 crore.

The recovery process will gather pace as more and more cases come up for resolution under IBC. Despite mounting pressure from promoters of defaulting companies, the Reserve Bank of India [RBI] [with full backing of finance minister, Arun Jaitely] has refused to give any leeway from the rigors of the bankruptcy proceedings. On expiration of the 180 days deadline [August 27, 2018] as per the RBI circular [February, 2018], 60 cases involving NPAs of over Rs 350,000 crore will go to NCLT.

With a policy of zero tolerance towards defaulters and not giving them even a day’s escape from the IBC proceedings, it is preposterous for the Congress to allege that Modi is helping industrialists to get away with loot of bank money.

On the alleged swallowing of the oil bonanza, the union government increased excise duty [ED] during the period when international price of crude was low [mid-2014 to end-2015]. Thereafter, even as crude price went up, ED was not reduced. The Congress wanted the duty to go down to prevent hike in price to consumers. But, this has to be weighed against negative for the poor in the event of cut in ED affecting funding of welfare schemes.

The issue is not retention of oil bonanza by the government per se. The moot point is how it is using this money? If, it is being deployed for welfare of the poor [with every penny reaching his account] and for building roads, rails, highways, hospitals etc which indeed is the case then, the ruling dispensation must get full marks.

Notwithstanding the real picture on ground zero, the incessant stream of lies and their streaming by a major section of the media without any counter [to highlight the correct facts] runs the risk of registering misleading messages in the mind of electorate. This could be suicidal for the country which is on a major correction course and the economy all set on a sustainable growth path.

While, Congress and all other opposition parties are hell bent on unseating Modi and will continue with what they are doing now with even greater intensity, there lies a huge responsibility on the media to ensure that the public is not misled.

The outcome of 2019 elections will depend a lot on how the media acts!