Demonetisation: It's carpet bombing, not a surgical strike!

A surgical strike is when you destroy specific enemy targets with no or minimal collateral damage; carpet bombing is when you bomb a large area hoping to destroy a few hidden targets with a high collateral damage. So let's demystify the so called surgical strike on black money !

Ill-conceived, poorly-managed and wrongly-targeted are mild words when it comes to describe the recent move of Modi Sarkaar of demonetising Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes. It's more about show than substance !

Many people ask me why I have a problem with the demonetisation decision considering I have been a part of the fight against corruption over the last few years ?

It's being said that to cure an illness that you need to take a bitter medicine. Yes, that's true but you administer the medicine to the people suffering from the illness, not those who don’t! Delivering unwarranted medicine can prove very harmful.  This move has hit the bottom of the pyramid the hardest

Common man's woes:
It is important to recognise that the target is black money and not the liquid cash used by millions of citizens. We are far from being a cashless society, crores of people still don't have bank accounts let alone credit or debit cards. They earn so little and struggle to make ends meet that savings are a far dream. For such people the lack of liquidity, even if temporary, is devastating as it affects their basic needs of food, health care, mobility, etc. Crores of people are being subjected to unimaginable hardship just to be able to use their own hard earned monies.

Trade and small businesses:
Large notes are believed to be over 80% of liquid cash in circulation. Sucking it out in one go without adequate alternate arrangement will certainly have its repercussions. While overall trade and business will be affected, people dealing with perishables and items with a short shelf life are the worst affected. Traders will probably incur an  increase in inventory costs and this increase in cost will definitely be passed on to consumers. The larger lumping danger is that 60 days of uncertainty and losses will need a recovery period of a year or two.

The Finance minister simply resorted to the adage, “No pain, no gain.” Agreed, but is there a gain? Does everyone, including the honest citizen, need to suffer the pain?  

Has black money been targeted just liquid cash, which is an integral part of our society? It's not rocket science to identify and specifically target black money, and qualify as a true surgical strike! Political funding, bribes, overseas deposits, real estate, gold, luxury goods, etc is where black money is mostly used. Shouldn’t these commodities and services be targetted for a well-intended strike? It's known that 90% of wealth in our country is with about 10% of our population. Why then can’t we define a specific target?

By permitting larger overseas transfers, have we not allowed the bird to fly away? Were the corrupt tipped off? Could this be the reason for the sudden spurt in bank deposits prior to the announcement? A large sum of money was deposited by your party in its account in West Bengal before the announcement was made; was just a coincidence ?

More importantly, by bringing back large notes, will we not be back to the square one? Why are key posts in anti-corruption institutions and judiciary in our country still vacant? Why is a strong anti-corruption Lokpal Bill still in Limbo and why has a Lokpal not been appointed ?

Sir, for the sake of our citizens, I hope I will be proved wrong, but in the meanwhile, don't blame us for thinking that this is just an attempt to project yourself as a crusader against corruption, just another Jumla ahead of upcoming elections in key states of UP, Punjab, and Goa!

The writer is State Convener of the Aam Aadmi Party Karnataka and a member of the National Executive of AAP