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Railways can help the poor learn cashless transactions if it makes the UTS app better

Hemant Bijapurkar
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Railways can help the poor learn cashless transactions if it makes the UTS app better

“Government of India encourages people to move towards a Cashless Economy” reads the opening sentence of a flash message that you can encounter these days on almost all of the websites related to the Indian Railways, including the hugely popular IRCTC e-ticketing portal.

IRCTC is special. Not only because it has improved itself so much that all “slower than IRCTC server” jokes have vanished, it is a big success story of technology adoption in India.

Consider this: according to estimates, not more than 10% of all transactions in India are cashless or digital, which proves that there is a long way to go before India becomes a cashless or less-cash economy. However, if you look at train ticket reservations, almost 60% of ticketing happens through IRCTC i.e. cashless transactions!

It will not be unreasonable to assume that Indian Railways – a mammoth on which almost 20 million people daily depend for their travelling needs – would have introduced many citizens to the convenience and effectiveness of cashless transactions through IRCTC. They would have gained confidence in this concept of digital transaction and would have tried the same on other e-commerce websites.

Now when the government is trying for a major push towards cashless economy – latest being the demonetisation move – Indian Railways can play a crucial role again, and this time through another ticketing offering – of unreserved tickets.

A considerable proportion of those travelling in trains using unreserved tickets happen to come from that socioeconomic class which the government is trying to include in banking system and educate about cashless transactions.

In such a scenario, a drive among this class telling them to adopt UTS (Unreserved Ticketing System) mobile apps can go a long way in educating them about cashless transactions and making them comfortable about digital economy.

However, before that step is taken, Indian Railways have to make sure that the UTS app is revamped and upgraded to make it easier and more efficient.

For those who don’t know, this article provides a walk around the Android app of UTS. It also lists some issues I could find that. I hope the Railways takes note of these – and other issues that readers or users point out – and comes up with an improved app that can prove to be crucial in realising the dream of a cashless economy:

The UTS mobile application was introduced in 2015, which enabled users to book ordinary unreserved tickets online and platform tickets. Currently it is available only for Android and Window users. There is also a UTS website but it can’t be used to book tickets.

You can download the app and register using your mobile number, which it verifies, and once the profile is ready, you get this screen:

The interface of UTS App
The interface of UTS App

Now the first problem is that the app is not fore entire India. It is mostly for suburban railways in major Indian cities, and that needs to change.

The poor people whom this government is targeting to be included in the cashless economy, travel long distances in unreserved coaches. It will be a good start for them if they start using this facility to book their tickets, and for that inter-city unreserved travel routes have to be introduced:

Services not available in many cities
Services not available in many cities

The app has the e-wallet concept (R-Wallet as you can see in the home screen), which you have to recharge in order to book tickets. There comes the second problem.

To recharge or topup the e-wallet, you either need to go to counter (which is not cashless) or do it via Paytm’s gateway with an extra Rs 10 charge. Good for this government that Arvind Kejriwal has not yet noticed it, else he would have claimed it as another proof of “deal” between Paytm and Narendra Modi!

Payment options for credit cards or government’s own initiative of UPI needs to be incorporated:

Payment options on UTS app
Not many options available for payments

There is another issue of the app compulsorily requiring a GPS enabled smartphone. GPS is required to ensure one is at least 4 meters away from a railway line so as to prevent people from booking tickets at a platform or in a train to avoid a fine as soon as they see a TTE (Train Ticket Examiner) approaching.

Perhaps the TTE can ascertain the same by looking at the time of booking the ticket? Doing away with the GPS check will save some time as sometimes people are not able to book tickets when GPS signal is weak (even though data connectivity is there). My mother sometimes has to go to the terrace to book the tickets!

Nonetheless, despite current shortcomings, the app works:

Sample ticket
Sample ticket

Overall as it stands, the UTS app isn’t the easiest to use with its high security features, limited payments options, and low available routes. It can also appear daunting to someone less inclined to technology.

But as they saw you need to start from somewhere. Right now it might appear a bit too fantastical that poor people will use smartphones and UPI or bank cards to book unreserved tickets. But who knows, with Jan Dhan accounts getting Rupay cards and smartphone penetrations destined to grow, UTS app could indeed be the major catalyst in changing the consumer behaviour, which is needed to move towards a cashless economy.

Aam Aadmi Party and the demise of hope

rohitagarwal
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Aam Aadmi Party and the demise of hope

Aam Aadmi Party was born of hope. The Lokpal movement of 2011, led by Anna Hazare, was a watershed event in India’s recent history. A diminutive mild mannered 70 something former soldier and social worker, Anna caught the nation’s imagination and inspired following like only Mahatma Gandhi had before him.

It was half-way into the second tenure of UPA government, and each new day brought with it news of another scam, each bigger than the last. Amounting to digits so big that an ordinary citizen had trouble figuring out the number of zeroes in it. Things came to such a ridiculous level that one union minister while refuting allegations of corruption against another argued that the amount involved (71 Lakhs) was too small for a minister.

To add to people’s despair, there didn’t seem to be any viable alternative in sight. Leadership of the principle opposition party BJP was ageing and ineffectual, apparently incapable of providing strongly taking on the government even when issues were handed to it on a platter every day.

So when Anna began a fast undo death in Delhi against the rampant corruption, people came out and joined him in thousands in a groundswell of active support. These were ordinary people – office goers, teachers, lawyers, students. People who had probably never actively participated in politics beyond casting their votes, if even that.

India Against corruption
Team Anna – genesis of hope

When Arvind Kejriwal, who was seen as one of the primary lieutenants of Anna, announced the formation of a political party for the Aam Aadmi, or the common man, he got instantaneous support of Anna’s huge follower base. This, even though Anna himself was not in favour of formation of a political party, preferring to keep his movement away from electoral politics. Maybe this was because he had the wisdom to foresee what would eventually happen.

Aam Aadmi party emerged as a symbol of hope amidst the depths of despair. The ideals and principles that Kejriwal lay down for the party seemed to be just what the country needed. He promised politics with a difference – away from the trappings that the people have come to associate with it. He promised clean, transparent governance delivered by ordinary people who wanted to make a difference.

So when AAP decided to contest Delhi assembly elections, people across the country, imaginations fired by a vision of change, came forward to offer support, resources, money and even their time towards furthering the cause. This phenomenon led to victory in the polls. Numbers didn’t allow AAP to form a stable government, and despite several U-turns by Kejriwal, the people of Delhi returned them with a mind boggling majority in the consequent re-elections.

Crowd at Jantar Mantar during Anna Days
The common man – the aam aadmi – was optimistic

But almost two years down the line, there is an overwhelming sense of disappointment amongst the people who had believed in the vision shown to them by Kejriwal. Although it’s still early days to conclusively evaluate the government on results, the sense people are getting are that the government has been delivering excuses instead of performance, passing on the blame to interference from the central government.

What’s worse is that the promised ‘politics with a difference’ is not visible. Party leaders have been quick in adopting the trappings of power despite prior promises of remaining as ‘Aam Aadmi’. High personal expenses (as per an RTI reply, the expenditure by the six cabinet ministers on tea and snacks has been Rs 1 Crore in 18 months, with Rs 47.29 Crores being spent at the CM’s office and residence alone), nepotism and frequent foreign jaunts.

What is even more disappointing is the way the party and government resources are being used to build the personality cult of Kejriwal himself. Till a crackdown by the courts, the Delhi government was regularly placing advertisements in regional newspapers across the country, particularly in states where the party is in the fray for the upcoming assembly elections. The arbitrary announcement of a monetary grant of Rs 1 Crore to the kin of Subedar Garewal who committed suicide recently in protest against OROP, despite the fact that he wasn’t even a resident of Delhi, is another example of the ‘outward’ focus of the Delhi government.

What shocked people even more was the vehemence with which Kejriwal has opposed the demonetisation move by the government. Since he has come to power on the primary plank of anti-corruption and clean politics, he and his party should have been the first to welcome some definitive action on this for the first time. However his opposition to it raises suspicion whether it has affected the party’s plans in the forthcoming elections in Punjab. Another reason for his pique could be the huge political advantage that BJP and the PM personally has got from this resolute action.

It’s becoming increasingly clear that all the actions and resources of the party and the Delhi government seem to be geared towards fulfilling the Prime Ministerial ambitions of Kejriwal. While ambition in itself isn’t bad, but the manner in which the hopes of millions of voters who elected him as CM are being trodden upon for its sake is. If the people of Punjab and Goa cast their votes for AAP, they must be clear that they’re doing so to just another political party, and the only difference it has to offer is the lack of administrative experience and acumen that the Delhi experience has shown. However, if the inputs from the ground in Punjab are to be believed, AAP has lost the edge it had over the other two parties/coalitions it had just a few months ago.

It would be a pity if this hope dies a premature death with the AAP joining the ranks of other political parties instead of being the party with a difference it started out to be. And that is on its way towards happening, primarily because of Arvind Kejriwal and a handful of key members – while the party still has a large base of professionals and common people who still believe in that dream.

Ideally, there should be an internal cleansing in the party, with this second rung who still believe in the core ideology, purging the party of people like Arvind Kejriwal and keeping the hope alive.

Full Disclosure – the author was a founder member of AAP, having joined the party at its launch at Jantar Mantar on 26 Nov 2012. The photographs in this post are from that event. He parted ways from the party when Arvind Kejriwal resigned as Delhi CM and decided to fight parliamentary elections. This was first posted on my blog.

Why amendment in taxation laws was brought in the middle of demonetisation

Gaurav
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Why amendment in taxation laws was brought in the middle of demonetisation

Demonetisation was a blow which struck at the heart of decades of planning by the corrupt. All those sacks of cash worthless within a few hours. The only way to redeem them was to deposit them in the banks and thus declare them as your income. The hardest part of this was gauging the taxation cost of this exercise. Each deposit would obviously catch the eye of the Income Tax Department and hence some tax would be payable on this.

And this is when the rumours began. Many social media messages portrayed that one would have to pay anywhere between 200% to 90% of the deposits as tax. This news created panic among the crooks, and they began looking at alternate “jugaad” to convert their cash into legal tender or other assets. This was partly debunked by us here.

The legal position though was worth studying and understanding. The penalty laws as per Income Tax Act, were amended in the latest budget, and some draconian provisions which gave undue power in the hands of the taxmen were withdrawn.

Simply put, the new laws stated as below:

  1. A penalty of 50% of tax amount for “under-reporting”
  2. A penalty of 200% of tax amount for “mis-reporting” as a consequence of “under-reporting”

Before we proceed, we need to understand these two new concepts which were brought in.

“Under reporting” meant that the income disclosed by the person, was lower than his actual income. In the context of demonetisation, “under-reporting” would be triggered if: A person deposits Rs 10 lacs as cash, but shows his income as only Rs 6 lacs, and cannot prove that the balance Rs 4 lacs was not his income.

“Mis-reporting” on the other hand referred to malafide “misrepresentation or suppression of facts” and similar actions. The new laws put the onus on the tax officer to prove that “mis-reporting” had taken place, thus it was not as straight forward a provision as the “under-reporting” clause.

What further complicate things was that the way the law was worded, it meant that the stringent 200% penalty of “mis-reporting” could be invoked ONLY if there was “under-reporting”.

To understand the consequence of this, let us take an example:

Mr A has Rs 50 lacs of black money. He deposits all of it in the bank and declares the entire amount as income. He pays 30% thereof as tax, under the regular provisions. Thus, Mr A, by declaring the total deposits and not hiding anything, has avoided the “under-reporting” clause. Thus he avoids the 50% penalty.

Now, as per the law, he could even avoid the 200% penalty for “mis-reporting” since, this could be triggered ONLY in the case of “under-reporting”. Further, the way the law was worded, there was a chance that the 200% penalty would be applied only on the income which was under-reported, and not on the total deposits. So there was a view in professional circles that one could get away with paying just 30% as tax!

This rate (excluding other consequences such as indirect tax laws etc.) was lower than the 45% offered to the Income Declaration Scheme applicants, and hence was not desirable. Mr A could appeal against any decision at multiple levels. He could appeal to the Commissioner (Appeals), the Income Tax Tribunal and even the Courts. Some of the legal means of avoiding penalty are given here.

Thus as per the old law, a crook caught in demonetisation had very good chances of paying just 30% Income tax.

To avoid this anomaly, where an IDS applicant faced a tax rate of 45% and a crook caught in the demonetisation scheme pays just 30% tax, a new scheme of Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana was brought in. It was done through the introduction of Taxation Laws (Second Amendment) Bill, 2016 in Lok Sabha yesterday.

This scheme primarily serves two purposes:

  1. It doesn’t allow people to use the possible loophole of getting away with just 30% tax as explained above.
  2. It clears the air on all kinds of tax and penalty numbers doing the rounds on the social media.
Taxation amendment during demonetisation
Details of the amendment brought in by the government. Source.

It should be noted that while 30% appeared the likely amount of tax to be paid, which could have “inspired” people to deposit their unaccounted cash, WhatsApp messages and many other considerations had also created the fear and confusion by circulating numbers like 200%. This turned off people from demonetisation, who then began looking for illegitimate means. This could have defeated the purpose of the drive.

Secondly, a gross tax rate of 50% with immunity from certain laws, but not from FEMA, PMLA, Narcotics, and Black Money Act, meant that the people caught after IDS, were not at any advantage over the people who had come clean during the IDS.

Thirdly, although the tax rate is 50%, the effective loss to the depositor is around 57%-60%, considering that he would lose interest on 25% of the money deposited in the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana for 4 years.

Fourth, the scheme has not just given a 50% rate, but has also warned that if anyone did not go for this, and tried to hoodwink the department by paying just 30% tax, and if caught, he would have to pay tax in excess of 85%.

So in effect, this scheme is a carrot and stick approach. The stick landed hard on November 8th, and now a small carrot has been dangled so that the intention of the demonetisation scheme is achieved.

Now the question arises if this is another Voluntary Income Disclosure Scheme? Not exactly because after the scrapping of old notes, it is not exactly “voluntary”, and the old IDS granted much greater immunity from further prosecution, as compared to this new scheme.

The Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana will most likely ensure better legal compliance from those who have stacks of black money or unaccounted cash, and discourage them from using illegal means to trick the department.

They can buy peace of mind (to an extent) buy parting away with 50%-60% of their money, and the Government also gets a substantial tax revenue, as compared to the old provisions where they could have been sitting with just 30% tax.

What BJP’s win in Phase 1 of Maharashtra municipal council polls signifies

mandarsawant
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What BJP’s win in Phase 1 of Maharashtra municipal council polls signifies

The first phase of the Municipal Council polls were held in Maharashtra on Sunday, 27th November 2016. The counting was done on Monday, 28th November 2016. This is a four phase election that will run till February 2017. These elections cover the semi urban areas of Maharashtra. Many of these towns have just been upgraded from gram panchayat to municipal council.

Media publicized these polls as litmus tests for the Devendra Fadnavis government and later also made it a referendum of rural and small town Maharashtra on demonetization.

BJP has always been an urban party in Maharashtra, with some pockets of influence in rural Maharashtra. These municipal council polls are a great indicator towards BJP’s future growth as these towns represent the future of a rapidly urbanizing Maharashtra (roughly 40% population is urban).

To set the context for these polls, following was the party wise strength (measured in number of corporators) in these areas in 2011:

2011 Maharashtra Results
Results of 2011 election

Thus we can see that BJP historically does not have a strong grass root party organization in rural and semi urban Maharashtra. These elections were a test of whether BJP has leveraged the 2014 Vidhan Sabha results and struck roots in these areas.

Another masterstroke by CM Devendra Fadnavis was introduction of direct election of nagar adkhyashkas (equivalent to mayors and henceforth referred to as council head). The voters would vote for their corporators (or nagarsewak) as well as for their council head separately. This system is an interesting experiment and seems to be on the lines of direct election of mayors in major countries of Europe and US.

When the counting started, BJP was trailing the other three main parties. Marathi news channels and journalists like Rajdeep Sardesai were quick to link this to a negative vote on the demonetization initiative of the Modi government. However, contrary to the initial trend, BJP started taking lead in the council head elections.

There were many towns in which the BJP did not have majority in the council but got their council head elected. For example in Karad (ex-CM Prithviraj Chavan’s stronghold) Congress won 16 councilor seats, NCP 6 councilors and BJP just 3 councilors. However, BJP’s candidate won the council head post.

Congress and NCP were gaining in Marathwada region where Dhananjay Munde (NCP) won the battle of the cousins by beating Pankaja Munde (late Gopinath Munde’s daughter) in Parli municipal council. It was a big loss for Pankaja who has made it a fight for her prestige. This also sets her back in the popular perception of being a challenger to CM Devendra Fadnavis.

BJP and Sena have gained in North Maharashtra (Khandesh) at the expense of Cong and NCP. BJP took a runaway lead in Vidarbha (from where Fadnavis, Nitin Gadkari and state finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar hail) by winning 25/44 of the council head elections, including 6/6 in Wardha district.

In what could come as a 440 volt shock to Congress and especially Sharad Pawar, BJP won more council heads in Western Maharashtra, an area they were largely non-existent till that historic May of 2014. BJP gains were in Sangli, Solapur and Kolhapur. They are expected to gain in Pune district too in the second phase of elections in mid-December 2016.

Konkan was evenly shared by all parties with ex CM Narayan Rane coming back from the dead to win majority for Congress in Sawantwadi, Vengurla and Devgad municipal councils. However it was not to be a big win for him as BJP and Sena denied him the council head positions in Vengurla (BJP), Sawantwadi (Sena). This prompted the Marathi media to use the famous words of Chhatrapati Shivaji ‘Gad aala, paan Sinha gela’ (We won the fort but lost our lion) when his army won the impregnable Kondana fort in Pune from the mughals, but lost his childhood friend and warrior Tanaji Malusare. In the context of these elections, Rane had won the majority in the councils but lost the council head posts.

Number of Council Head posts won

Council Heads

Number of Councilor Posts won (comparison with 2011)

Councilor Post

The conclusion that can be drawn from these results is the following,

  1. These results are a thumbs up given to CM Devendra Fadnavis who has taken up many welfare measures and infrastructure projects. This can also be taken as an indirect endorsement of the success of the #JalYuktShivar (a micro irrigation scheme). Many of these municipal councils are recently converted from gram panchayats and some would have experienced the benefits of this programme.
  2. BJP’s strength in semi urban Maharashtra is here to stay and BJP seems to have dug some roots here. Critics who said that BJP win was due to Modi wave of 2014 should now do more analysis.
  3. There is no flash anger against the Modi government for demonetization. Though it may be early to know if demonetization has added new voters but it has definitely not angered most of the voters. PM Modi can be reassured by this verdict and keep getting bolder in his anti-black money mission. Though people want to see tangible benefits of the scheme but they are ready to cut slack and give him much more than 50 days.
  4. Voters have rejected entrenched political families in their bastions. Days of dynasty seem to be coming to an end rather soon.
  5. CM Devendra Fadnavis is now the tallest BJP leader in Maharashtra and has absolutely no challenge from his local adversaries. Upstarts like Pankaja Munde have been dealt with a rude lesson by the electorate.
  6. The results portend well for BJP in the remaining three phases of municipal council polls as well as the municipality polls in February 2017. The big prizes on stake are Mumbai, Thane, Nashik, Nagpur, Pune and Aurangabad municipalities.

Narendra Modi has forgotten the 2014 elections, and this is why he has done that

Rahul Roushan
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Narendra Modi has forgotten the 2014 elections, and this is why he has done that

In May 2014, Narendra Modi recorded an unprecedented victory in the history of contemporary India. I have deliberately called it a Modi victory rather than a BJP or NDA victory, because it indeed was victory of a personality called Narendra Modi.

While hardly anyone gave Congress any chance of it returning to power, and some people talked about Modi wave, no one knew about this Modi tsunami that would eventually strike the motley of pollsters, “intellectuals”, and of course, the Congress party.

People just couldn’t stop talking about 2014 after the results were out. Well, even otherwise it was a hotly debated election, but the results made it burning hot. How it happened, why it happened, does this change India forever, and all kinds of things were discussed.

Whether Modi haters or his ‘bhakts’ – both love to go back to the last general elections, and remind or warn each other that it will repeat or it will not repeat in 2019. Books were written and are still being written about the 2014 elections.

It’s been around 30 months now, but it appears that most people can’t get over the 2014 verdict yet.

Except one man – Narendra Modi himself.

He came, he saw, he conquered. And he has moved on.

He doesn’t open YouTube to watch the dejected faces of NDTV anchors or of likes of Rajdeep Sardesai discussing the 2014 mandate and feel good about it.

Okay, that sounds a bit too childish for a Prime Minister to do, but what if I told you that he has almost forgotten 2014? That he is not making policies based on the 2014 mandate. And that he is not looking to repeat 2014 at all.

Because of the simple reason that he will not be a challenger in 2019. He will be the incumbent. 2014 factors will not repeat in 2019.

But there is another election that he has in mind – that of 2004. When BJP government led by Vajpayee lost after everyone thought Atal Wave was intact.

If there is any election and it’s repeat that Modi is thinking about, it’s the 2004 general elections and he is thinking about stopping its repeat.

It’s rather surprising that 2004 election results didn’t see as many books or debates germinating out of it as 2014 could. Perhaps those who like to write books were busy celebrating BJP’s defeat. In fact, Arundahti Roy literally said that darkness had passed and it was time for celebration.

Journalists might have got too busy with celebratory parties or with getting a new union cabinet formed – a hitherto unknown journalistic role that people discovered thanks to Niira Radia – so 2004 didn’t see the kind of microscopic analysis 2014 has seen.

Nonetheless, there were some analyses and conclusions that are largely accepted by all:

  • Vajpayee’s pro-market policies didn’t have immediate short term positive impacts that could be felt by the masses, especially in the rural India or by the urban poor. A booming Sensex didn’t make sense to them.
  • BJP’s over emphasis on “India Shining” and technology didn’t cut ice with the aforementioned section. They could connect with Congress’ campaign of “aam aadmi ko kya mila?” (What did the common man get in all this India shining business?)
  • Vajpayee kept a moderate outlook and BJP actively tried to woo minorities, especially Muslims, due to which the core Hindutva group was not energised enough to actively campaign and vote.

And these are the factors that Narendra Modi will be keeping in mind when he thinks 2019, rather than getting stuck on to what happened in 2014. So while the 2014 mandate might look like a directive for Modi to go aggressively after Gandhis and to make more and more free-market policies, his policies will be decided by what happened in 2004.

The political incidents in 2014 and 2015 would have only strengthened this belief that the challenge before Modi is not to repeat 2014 but to stop the repeat of 2004. Because the usual suspects are repeating, purposely or pavlovianly, what they did to Vajpayee.

There were cries of “rising intolerance” during Vajpayee too, when “fringe groups” disturbed shooting of a movie Water, incidentally with screenplay by Anurag Kashyap of “btw, Bharat Mata Ki Jai” fame, and HRD Minister Murli Manohar Joshi was accused of interfering with educational institutes just like now they are accusing the Modi govt of stifling universities.

While the above two criticisms are good for TV debates and op-eds in New York Times, in 2015, BJP did face defeats first in Delhi and then in Bihar. The defeat in Bihar would have especially hurt Modi because he was the chief campaigner there.

Apart from a formidable opposition that had allied as ‘mahagathbandhan’, what hurt BJP was the constant messaging by the Janta Parivar that Modi was working only for the rich, for Ambani-Adani (something I had touched upon in my article after Bihar assembly results). Basically the same “aam aadmi ko kya mila” taunt that brought down BJP in 2004.

And which is why Modi is now on a mission that the poor don’t believe this again. The demonetisation announcement is a part of that, where the poor believe that the rich with ill-gotten money are being forced to burn their wealth, while their own money is safe (the demonetisation ads released by the government actually plays up this “my money is safe” part).

Today, the government announced that the there will be surcharge on tax and penalty on unaccounted deposits, exclusively to be spent on welfare schemes for the poor. Not only that, 25% of such deposits will be locked in for government’s anti-poverty scheme.

If the government can achieve what it is aiming for in shape of these welfare spends – which is not exactly right-wing free-markets economics that 2014 supposedly voted for – Modi will be able to do what Vajpayee couldn’t do i.e. to convince the poor that the government is working for them.

And this is why the opposition is rattled the most. They too understand that Modi is trying to stop the repeat of 2004.

In 2004, there was stampede in Uttar Pradesh when poor women rushed to collect free saares distributed by BJP. That was not India Shining. Modi is working to stop repeat of such errors. As of now, such images have been seen only in Rahul Gandhi’s rallies, where fortunately there has been no stampede but poor people can be seen rushing to collect free cots (khaat). That’s indictment of Congress’ rule of decades, where the poor have to fight for cots.

The theory that Modi has gotten over 2014 can also be verified from the fact that he disbanded the tech-savvy team of Prashant Kishore soon after the victory. People wondered why did he do that, and after the Bihar defeat, they thought it was a blunder. But that was another signal that Modi had decided to start afresh after the victory. 2014 was history.

That leaves the last point – the core Hindutva voters. How does Modi make sure that they don’t lose the steam as is argued to have happened in 2004?

Well, here Modi’s job will perhaps be done by his haters. Even in 2014, he didn’t need to make any communal or divisive statements, but the Hindutva core was all geared up. Because his haters called him all names – a fascist who must be resisted if India has to be stopped from becoming a Hindu Rashtra. The elections were polarised for this group by the secularists, not by Modi.

Even now the Hindutva core group is not exactly happy – as the government has not freed temples, or removed RTE that exempts minority run schools, or acted on any other pet projects like Ram Temple. But they will be energised and polarised by the hyperactive secularists of this country, who simply can’t change.

Just see the latest example of Triple Talaq or Uniform Civil Code. It is not BJP, but Modi haters who are making it a Hindu vs Muslim issue. In fact forget these issues, even demonetisation has been made into Hindu vs Muslim issue!


Well, they say that history repeats itself, and Modi’s challenge is to make sure it doesn’t. As of now, he appears to have a plan to stop that, and create history again.

Update, on May 24, 2019: He has done it!

The connection between Zakir Naik’s NGO and the Congress

Hemant Bijapurkar
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The connection between Zakir Naik’s NGO and the Congress

The controversy of donations made by the Islamic Research Foundationm (IRF) to the Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust (RGCT) doesn’t seem to be abetting. As per a report published in TOI, apart from a Rs 50 lakh donation RGCT received from the IRF, there was another donation amounting to Rs 25 lakh applied for by the trust. Sonia and Rahul Gandhi are the trustees of this particular trust.

The donation made by Zakir Naik’s IRF to the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation in 2011 was unearthed recently and the whole amount was returned by the trust around 6 months back when Zakir Naik and his NGO came under public scanner.

Abhishek Manu Singhvi in Congress’s defense stressed that the donation was made before IRF’s embroilment in the terror and forced conversion allegations, and that the donation was an unsolicited one time thing. So assuming his defense to be true lets now look at the following points.

First the manner in which the IRF tried to donate the 25 lakh to the Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust: It didn’t make a direct donation. It transferred the amount to the Mumbai based M H Saboo Siddique Maternity and General Hospital with the instructions of having the hospital route the funds to the Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust.

The hospital was paid Rs 30 lakh out of which Rs 5 lakh were assigned for its own utilization and the rest were to be passed on to the RGCT. Incidentally there were reports in 2015 of the hospital getting shut down by the BMC as the hospital was flouting its PPP norms by running a full super specialty hospital even though it only had permission to run a Maternity Home. Interestingly the whole amount was finally used up by the hospital itself after the IRF kept flip flopping on the end beneficiaries like instructing the amount to be transferred to Kamla Nehru Memorial Hospital and later to an organisation named KARM.

So if IRF was a totally non-controversial organisation at that time as claimed by the Congress spokesperson, why wasn’t the amount directly received by RGCT in the first place?

Secondly, if the amount in itself was unsolicited, why did the resolutions passed by the IRF claim that the amount was released after it received applications from the RCF and RGCT respectively. Should Congress not be attacking Zakir Naik for making things up?

Thirdly, if the donations were indeed a one-off thing as claimed by Mr Singhvi then how come reports have surfaced of two donations of 50 lakh and 25 lakh respectively.

Now apart from this, lets look at the Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust for a moment. They chiefly have two areas of charity namely in the field of Eye care and most importantly ‘Women Empowerment’. If the TOI report is to be believed, the RGCT asked for funds partly to utilize them for women’s empowerment. And they reached out to NGO of Zakir Naik, who has famously condoned ‘light beating‘ of a wife by her husband. The video of Zakir Naik’s speech was uploaded back in Feb 2011 so it was before or around the time RGCT asked for funds.

The relationship between the IRF and the Congress doesn’t end with donations, in October 2012 senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh was seen sharing the stage with Zakir Naik.

So the party has much to answer than to virtually claim that Zakir Naik was in one-sided love with the party, where his NGO kept donating to trusts and organisations linked with Congress or its leaders.

Demonetisation, Prohibition, Nitish and the current political equations of Bihar

Rahul Raj
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Demonetisation, Prohibition, Nitish and the current political equations of Bihar

Bihar has completed one year of the Mahagatabandhan government. From the State’s Health Minister and Lalu Prasad’s elder son Tej Pratap Yadav prescribing “horse-riding” to curb pollution and to skirt traffic jams to the Chief Minister banning alcohol with stringent rules, within an year Bihar has witnessed multiple pleasant and unpleasant surprises.

Recently I was traveling across a few cities of Bihar to attend wedding ceremonies of a close relative. Using this as a good opportunity, I interacted with locals from these places to know their views on political developments in India, in Bihar, and in their localities.

Demonetisation is the latest buzz everywhere. So is it in Bihar too. I heard people intensely discussing it at various places – the yellow building of Patna Airport, across the congested narrow streets opposite to Takht Sri Patna Sahib, on the dilapidated semi-functional Mahatma Gandhi Setu, and inside the villages of Siwan, which was once a stronghold of Mohammad Shahabuddin.

The opinions were mixed. Since I was there to attend a wedding, I was also getting a first-hand experience of operational problems which people are facing due to cash crunch. Band wallas, decorators and caterers had to manage by taking a mix of cheques, old 500 notes and valid notes. There was inconvenience in the air, but things didn’t stop due to it.

I experienced similar atmosphere in the village of Siwan where the wedding was scheduled and where one could hardly find someone using net banking. Not only that, when I enquired some locals of Siwan (a traditional RJD belt), they told me that they are very satisfied with the demonetisation scheme announced by Modi. While many people were hopeful about demonetisation, many were expressing anger due to distress caused by long queues and unavailability of cash needed to pay to daily wage labourers. The ratio, however, was very inclined towards people who are supporting the scheme.

It was impressive to notice the penetration of WhatsApp into interiors of Bihar. People showed me WhatsApp messages related to demonetisation – some of which were official communications, some were rumors, some were nationalistic jibes, and most were jokes. One of my relatives read a WhatsApp joke to me which roughly meant: “मोदी का भरोसा नहीं। कल अचानक ये भी ऐलान कर सकता है कि ट्रेन की पटरी करंट बिछवा दिया जायेगा ताकि लोग उसपर शौच ना करें।” (Translation: Don’t trust Modi. Tomorrow he may also announce that railway tracks will be electrified so that people don’t defecate on them.)

Another interesting buzz which was going viral in Patna was that Narendra Modi’s official app start playing Modi’s speech when it is exposed to a 2000 rupee note. People were connecting it to the nano chip rumor which went viral after the first news on 2000 rupee note broke-out. Soon I found that some pranksters have created multiple variants of Modi KeyNote Apps which plays his speech.

Modi ke Note
Many were confusing it with a feature on official Narendra Modi app – the rumours are of all kinds.

So in essence, Bihar was dealing with demonetisation with overall support, some complaint, some anger, and some fun.

On politics inside Bihar, people said that the mahol (ambiance) is not the same as it was after the announcement of assembly election results. The jingles of “Bihar mein Bahaar ho” are no more soothing to their ears. Despite several claims by Nitish Kumar that crime has dipped inside Bihar, people say that crime has gone up. Gundagardi and Rangdaari are back. Only a few days back, a correspondent of Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar named Dharmender Singh was shot dead outside a roadside tea shop in Sasaram. People are keeping a track of such incidents.

As far as prohibition is concerned, Nitish has won the heart of many Biharis by banning liquor inside the state. Contrary to editorials of magazines and newspapers, contrary to outrages on the social media, and contrary to debates on news channels, people, in general, are very happy with ban on liquor. The biggest beneficiaries are women, who are acknowledging decline in the domestic violence due to prohibition.  The ban has poorly impacted the “fast food” businesses inside the state, but it has certainly won goodwill for Nitish Kumar.

Perhaps one can claim that the sentiments towards demonetisation and prohibition are similar – there is inconvenience, there is negative impact on some businesses, and there are valid criticisms of the moves based on economic or democratic principles, but people are largely in support of these as they feel that the positive outcomes outweigh the negative ones.

The popular sentiment in Bihar is that the Mahagatabandhan Sarkar won’t last for long. Nitish, in his recent speeches, has not only praised demonetisation from multiple platforms, but he has also distanced himself from protest organized by his political friends like Mamta Banerjee and Arvind Kejriwal. People in Bihar anticipate political shift in 2017. The national equations will become very interesting if Nitish joins hands with BJP again.

Only time will tell which direction will the wind blow.

The corrupt are our friends : How hatred for Modi changed the discourse around corruption

Abhishek Banerjee
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The corrupt are our friends : How hatred for Modi changed the discourse around corruption

Growing up in India, it was not long before I became aware of the monster called “corruption”. We all talked about it, we all shook our heads about it… none of us could do anything about it.

The sinister term for the proceeds of corruption was “black money”. From street corner discussions to Bollywood movies, we all heard about how the monster of corruption chews up the common people in this country. In the belly of this monster lies the so called “black money”.

And we all understood that the corruption went right to the top. The peons at government offices were corrupt. The cashiers and accountants were corrupt. Their managers were corrupt. The IAS bureaucrats who ruled over them were corrupt. And the ministers those bureaucrats reported to were corrupt.

Not surprisingly, every common Indian carries within himself this seething, helpless anger against corruption and black money. And so it happened that when a band of “revolutionaries” arrived at Jantar Mantar in Delhi, early in the summer of 2011, this anger exploded. The language used at that time was fully laced with undertones of violence, showing the depth of our anger and frustration. “Final War against corruption” they would call it:

Arvind Kejriwal fasting against corruption
Can you see “Final War Against Corruption” written in the background?

Or they would call it the “Second Battle for Independence”.

Note the imagery conveyed by the words. Corruption was the ultimate monster and we have to begin “final war” against it. No sacrifice is too great in this battle. Because this is the second battle for independence. How can we as patriots not be ready to sacrifice everything we have? This is how corruption and black money was visualized:

India Against Corruption cartoons
The monster of corruption, wearing the cap of a politician. Soon that cap will be worn by anti-corruption activists.

How could we not fight back? Right?

We fought, and the UPA government, seen as massively corrupt, was thrown out. A new government under the leadership of Narendra Modi was formed.

A few months after taking charge, the new government revealed names of a few people having black money in foreign lands.

The liberal echo chamber erupted with laughter. Ha Ha Ha! After so much ado, this is all that Modi sarkar could do to catch the monster? You stupid bhakts… LOL!

And this laughter reappeared, every time the government tried to do something that was remotely related to fighting corruption or enabling the poor to get into the system that had kept them out for decades.

Ha ha ha! Most of those Jan Dhan accounts are totally empty. You stupid bhakts again.

Ha ha ha! The income disclosure scheme unearthed just Rs 65,000 crore. You silly bhakts. Can’t stop laughing.

And then at 8 pm on Nov 8, Modi fired a single shot. A single shot that was heard around the world. For black money holders, the world came to an abrupt end.

But then a miraculous thing happened. The intellectual echo chamber swiftly shifted the consensus view on what black money was:

Firstpost's apologetic headline on corruption
Honey I shrank the corruption monster

Oh look how wonderful! From a ravenous flesh hungry monster, corruption has suddenly become gentle as sheep. What’s wrong with those poor black sheep? They never hurt anybody, did they? Can’t we just live and let live?

Here is Firstpost again, telling us that Corruption is all a big yawn:

Firstpost whitewashes Manmohan Singh's crimes
Can’t we forget all those scams because he quoted John Maynard Keynes?

Yes. Why talk of scams? It’s all too boring and too old. It is not like corruption is a problem, is it?

Not just the media, our leaders were not far behind:

Raj Thackeray on demonetisation
From monster to sheep to mouse

See? Corruption is no man eating monster. Corruption is a teeny tiny mouse.

You know, now that I think about it, corruption is a cute little mouse like Jerry. We have all cheered for the lovable Jerry trying to give big bad Tom the slip. Why can’t we cheer for corruption as well?

It gets even better :

Akhilesh Yadav on black money
From a monster, it is now a mitra (friend).

Not only is corruption our cute cuddly house pet. How can we forget all the good things that corruption does for us? Black money is our ever faithful friend who stood with us in times of distress and now we want to turn our backs on it.

Coming as it is from the current heartthrob of Lutyens Delhi, I expect them to write children’s fables about  the friendship between India and black money. When the nation was on a knife edge of disaster, we were saved by our faithful friend : black money.

I even learned that we are demeaning our loyal friend through the use of the term “black money”.

Black money is racist
Corruption is being maligned, we need to fight for it, not fight against it.

And don’t you silly bhakts dare talk about sacrifices for the sake of nationalism now. The fight against corruption no longer needs sacrifices like leaving your job or joining marches and rallies day after day. Even standing in a queue is too much to ask for:

Rhetoric are no longer required
Only rhetorical terms like “Emergency” and “Fascism” need to be respected. “Patriotism” is a bhakt thing that must be taken literally and mocked.

So what happened to the imagery of “Final War against Corruption” and “Second Battle for Independence”?

All I see today is liberals mocking Narendra Modi and his “bhakts” for telling people to bear some pain for the sake of the nation. Why can’t we talk about patriotism now? NOW suddenly it is silly to talk about soldiers at the border? Who used to talk about the “Second Battle” and “Final War”? What happened? Why did that rhetoric change?

Friends, I assure you the day is not far when the echo chamber will sing paeans to black money. Instead of “Tom and Jerry”, there will be cartoons like “Modi and Black Money”, where big bad Modi chases around poor little black money. Bollywood will make movies about how the helpless poor were saved by the generosity of black money holders.

When we were growing up, we had to write essays in school about “People who help us”. This would include essays such as “Our friend the postman” and “Our friend the policeman”. Don’t be surprised if one of these days, your child comes back from school with a writing assignment on “Our friends the corrupt”.

Are less-cash economy and more people in banking system just ‘side effects’ of demonetisation?

Ashutosh Muglikar
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Are less-cash economy and more people in banking system just ‘side effects’ of demonetisation?

It is widely believed and acknowledged that the demonetisation programme was announced to curb black money (and thus curb corruption) and to curb counterfeit notes (that often form the shadow economy supporting insurgency and crime).

And we are seeing those effects too. While black money is getting unearthed, there are reports of insurgency too getting hit.

The side effects of demonetisation of course is the cash crunch, which is causing myriad of short term problems. Due to this cash crunch, a lot of people are moving towards using netbanking and mobile wallets i.e. people are being “pushed” towards a cashless economy, or better, “less cash” economy.

But is that just a side effect? An unintended outcome? Or the government actually wanted and planned this push?

First let’s focus on the cash that is impacted by demonetisation. This can broadly be divided into three parts:

  1. Black Money generated via tax evasion or via over/under invoicing by various entities.
  2. Black Money generated via illegal activities like drugs, counterfeit notes trafficking etc.
  3. Legitimate cash used by formal as well as informal economy.

Demonetisation seems to be addressing all three aforementioned aspects of money circulation in the following manner respectively:

  • Strategy 1: Income Disclosure Scheme (IDS), GST, Aadhar/PAN Based data collection, monitoring and compliance, rationalising provisions of withholding tax, capital gains, etc. Setting up of International Financial Services Centre (IFSC), Country by Country Reporting, Revision of DTAA agreements with Mauritius, Cyprus and Switzerland.
  • Strategy 2: Demonetisation has already made the old counterfeit notes invalid as they can’t be deposited or exchanged. The ill-gotten money is being recovered through income tax assessments/raids across the country. Some are destroying their ill-gotten money that helps RBI remove its liabilities.
  • Strategy 3: A move towards “Less Cash Economy” by encouraging adoption of mobile/net banking and other E-Payment options.

But are we sure that it was one of the central strategies?

Let’s look at some data which provides a very important background to the whole affair.

Firstly, online transactions and cashless transactions have been growing in India at a rapid pace; be it in common known modes of fund transfers like NEFT or the transactions via Point of Sale machines (the monitor that the cashier bangs at the payment counters in supermarkets), Debit Cards, Credit Cards and ATM machines:

  • The number of NEFT transactions saw a stunning 1412.07% rise from 8.28 crores in 2013-14 to 125.2 crores transactions in 2015-16
  • The number of RTGS transactions saw a huge rise of 1039.53% from 86.4 lakhs to about 9.8 crores transactions in 2015-16.
  • Number of ATM’s saw a rise of 25% from 1,70,473 units in 2014 to 2,15,039 unit in 2016.
  • Number of POS machines grew from 10,18,264 machines in August 2014 to 14,61,972 machines in August 2016. It should also be noted that all these machines except for 300 of Bank of India are online while the number of offline machines in 2014 stood at 7566. As per few news reports the demand post Demonitisation has shot up to 5000 machines daily for just 1 bank.
  • The number of transactions via credit cards rose by 66.54% from about 5.08 crores in 2014 to about 8.46 crores transactions.
  • The number of transactions via debit cards rose 32.42% from about 65.49 crores in 2014 to about 86.72 crores transactions.

All the data and more can be read in more detail by checking out this twitter thread.

In all, the total volume of transactions involving a bank saw a growth of about 1521.22% from 933.15 million transactions in year 2013-14 to 15,126.04 million so far in 2015-16.

If cashless transactions were already growing, why should the theory that demonetisation was brought in to purposely ensure more people move towards less-cash economy have any credence?

That’s where another set of data becomes critical: While the digital form of online transactions has been increasing, so has been the amount of cash with the public in the now defunct denominations. The total amount in these notes rose from about 1073800 crores in 2013-14 to 1417800 crores in 2014-15, or near about a staggering 50% increase in just two years.

So the cash in the economy was not going down, even though as pointed above, there has been a very substantial growth in the amount of digital non-cash dealings during that period.

A cash based economy is expensive. Currently it costs about 0.25% of India’s GDP. Excess cash in the market is not just difficult to track for taxation purposes, such a high amount of currency printing, bulk of which happened during the UPA period, might also have seriously depreciated the value of the currency and in the worst case led to hyperinflation.

A less-cash economy comes with its own advantages. Cost of transactions goes down, time and cost of accounting goes down, and of course, costs of printing currency  goes down. Compliance is better as there is better documentation. Better documentation and compliance plugs loopholes in public distribution system. And there is better tax monitoring, and better revenue collections.

Thus looking at the above points it will not be unwise to conclude that one of the reasons demonetisation was brought in was to ensure that more people took to banking, and that the cash in people’s hand, which rose so alarmingly, could be reduced.

It is not just a “side effect” but one of the main objectives. Though the objective is not easy to achieve.

One of the main reasons why people prefer cash over e-payments is that cash gives ease of use. If a big chunk of the legitimate cash is out of banking system as people still prefer to keep physical cash, it is something to ponder about. Cash brings parity and there is no case of “rejections”. With penetration of mobile telephony, POS, and bank accounts in both rural and urban areas as highlighted above, the difference of “Cash in hand” and “Cash at bank” will become narrower and this move shall keep a check on future generation of black money.

Some signs are already starting to show as total deposits and exchanges in the demonetisation period from 10th Nov to 18th Nov stood at Rs. 5,44,571 lakh crores while withdrawals stood at only 1,03,036 lakh crores. Even though this number may go up in the future as the restrictions are eased.

Getting masses into the banking system will need a major change in attitudes and spending patterns in our country where more than 90% of the transactions happen in cash.

Prime Minister’s Jan Dhan Yojana and its outreach was a part of this. Ministers also have been talking about cashless economy. Recently, the government announced special drive to bring more people into the banking system. And today, the Prime Minister in his Mann Ki Baat radio address, talked at length about moving towards cashless economy and how the youth should help older generations and poor people to adopt technologies that enables this transition.

However, getting people into the banking system is just the beginning; they will have to be sensitised and educated about digital transactions and convinced that it was easier and safer.

The transition from Demonetised India to Digital India will have to be a special project in itself.

Kejriwal reserves post of Dy CM of Punjab for a caste – what it tells about him

Dr. Shweta
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Kejriwal reserves post of Dy CM of Punjab for a caste – what it tells about him

On Friday evening, when one expects him to review a newly released movie, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal released an old movie – caste politics – remastered in honest colours.

The AAP supremo announced that the next Deputy Chief Minister of Punjab will be a Dalit, presumably if his party won the elections:



There are two Ds that are keys to his announcement – Deputy and Dalit.

The post of ‘Deputy’ CM (and even Deputy PM) has often been argued by many to be a clever workaround the provisions of the constitution of India, which doesn’t talk of any such post. However, it is not an uncommon practice in Indian Politics.

Primarily it is a descriptive and a ceremonial post. For all practical purposes, the Deputy CM/PM is deemed to be a cabinet minister and is also administered oath as such. He/she doesn’t enjoy any special powers accorded by the constitution.

The post of Deputy CM/PM broadly serves three major purposes:

  1. To massage the ego of a politician who couldn’t win the race to the PM/CM seat but thinks of himself as superior to the rest of the ministers. India saw a few Deputy PMs for this purpose. Funniest of them all was the case of Devi Lal, who deliberately misread the oath to call himself the ‘Deputy Prime Minister’, though he was expected to say only ‘Minister’ during the oath. Ah, the good old days!
  2. Deputy CM as the de facto CM is probably the invention of Kejriwal. Deputy CM of Delhi Mr. Sisodia, for all practices, is the acting CM of Delhi while Kejriwal keeps himself busy tweeting against Modi and doing other assorted shocking and entertaining activities.
  3. To monkey balance identity politics. For example, in Telangana, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao appointed two Deputy CMs – one a Muslim and another Dalit – the symbolism was too obvious not to note, even though KCR didn’t announce it the way Kejriwal has announced.

And that brings it to the other D – Dalit. Why Kejriwal had to go so desperate to announce a rather ceremonial post sans real powers to a particular caste group?

Obviously Kejriwal’s aim is to appease Dalits in Punjab into voting for AAP – you may say. It is realpolitik, a standard tactic employed by political parties, you may argue.

But. But. But! We are not talking about any other politician. We are talking about the Messiah of the Masses. The Yugpurush, whose sole purpose on earth is to cleanse the old rotten Indian politics of all its evils.

Here’s the Messiah himself applauding the earthlings of Delhi for rejecting the politics of Caste and Religion and giving him a landslide victory last year:


And here’s the Deputy Messiah putting the onus on the media to drive away caste politics:


So what changed?

Kejriwal changed?

No, not really, as you will see below.

According to 2011 census, Punjab has the largest share of Dalits in its population at 31.9%, which is large enough to swing election results. Compared to it, the percentage of Dalits in Delhi is much less. Also, Delhi government can accommodate a maximum of 7 ministers (Kejriwal + 6) and Sisodia was always going to be the Deputy and de facto CM considering Kejriwal’s greater ambitions.

For those readers with short memories, let me remind them that, in Delhi, Kejriwal did try to woo another set of voters in the name of caste.

Kejriwal called himself “baniya”:

Kejriwal's caste politics
Kejriwal had played caste card before he went all sanctimonious and thanked Delhi voters for rejecting politics of caste.

So he’s the same. The same d̶e̶v̶i̶o̶u̶s̶ smart politician as any other, who knows where and whom to appease. Just that he’s getting more and more brazen with time, because he knows that no one in the media or so-called intelligentsia will question him.

The torch bearer of clean and no caste-creed politics is now digging into it openly to win the elections at any cost. Someone who allegedly had no greed for power and money is now leaving no stone unturned to get more and more power.

All the while leaving his people in the capital facing the grave threats ranging from pollution and lack of civic amenities to everyday crime that they have to fight for themselves – never mind, last one can be blamed on Delhi police.

Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi won by a huge margin and almost everyone, irrespective of their political ideology, appreciated that the party at least seemed to stand for a new kind of politics. There was a glimmer of hope that Kejriwal might usher in new and cleaner politics. For some time, it even appeared that the party might actually work to fulfil their election promises including rooting out corruption. But with every passing day, he is making even the worst of the politicians in India look better in comparison.

Well, that probably is the higher purpose God had in mind when he sent this Messiah amongst us. That, by the time he is done with politics, he will make the rest of the politicians look better and people will stop feeling too bad about the state of politics in this country.

Amen!

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