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Raghav Bahl, Bloomberg Quint, and the art of faux-economics

Gaurav
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Raghav Bahl, Bloomberg Quint, and the art of faux-economics

No, sorry. This is a misleading headline.

This article, written by Raghav Bahl, the founder of Bloomberg-Quint, “India’s premier multi-platform business and financial news company”, cannot be called even faux-economics. It is just pure mumbo-jumbo. Yup, Bahl, who had been thoroughly “demonetised” here, is back for another spanking.

This time, Bahl tries an interesting format, where he gives us what he calls us the ‘Official Spin’, which according to him is the popular narrative, and then proceeds to give ‘The Reality’. Except that the ‘Official spin’ is mostly a figment of his own imagination, and ‘The Reality’ is worse than all of Shirish Kunder’s jokes put together.

Let us deconstruct each one:

Bloomberg-Quint's 1st senseless infographic
Bahl has no idea about taxes, compliance, banking, or simply – common sense.

1. The ‘Official Spin’, as per Bahl, here is that the demonetisation scheme has snatched a windfall from the bad-guys, and would give the Government a hefty sum to spend on development.

Bahl counters this by using the most asinine logic available on the face of this earth. First, he criticises the scheme because he feels it has aided the crooks in converting their black money into ‘white’. Of course, he coolly forgets the costs attached here: A minimum of 30% of Income Tax, the chances of a penalty ranging from 50% to 200% of the tax, reported amended taxes which could be in the range of 50-60% (funnily, reported on Bloomberg-Quint itself; maybe Raghav Bahl doesn’t read his own website?), Indirect taxes such as VAT or Service Tax catching up, and of course, the lack of any sort of immunity allowing the Income Tax Department to dig up all your past records.

Yup, in Bahl’s mind, this demonetisation is just one easy black-to-white window of opportunity with no consequences.

This blinkered viewpoint is not a mistake though, because in the 2nd part of his ‘The Reality’, he claims that the Government would not get any money for development schemes since all the money deposited, could easily be withdrawn from banks! It’s difficult to comprehend where to start regarding this:

A. Mr. Bahl, the Government was never supposed to use the money deposited in banks for development. Governments can’t do that! The money in the banks is that of the depositors, which the banks can ONLY lend to borrowers, not donate to the Government of the day. Imagine a private bank like HDFC Bank giving away public deposits to the Government. Mr. Bahl, do you have the faintest idea of how the banking system works all around the world? You put forward a stupendously stupid idea, imagine that it is government’s plan, and then go ahead and counter that.

B. The money, which the Government is touted to receive, is the tax component on the deposits of black money. Yes, the same tax which you conveniently forgot about in the first limb of your argument. Tax on income = Government’s money, and Income deposited in banks = Public money. Hope that’s clear!

Now let’s move to the 2nd point Mr. Bahl makes:

Bloomberg-Quint's 2nd senseless infographic
Bahl doing what he’s accusing the government of doing – selectively interpreting data

2. Here, Bahl says, the ‘Official Spin’ is that the public has given a thumbs up to the move via the positive results for BJP in the latest bye-elections.

Bahl’s ‘The Reality’ is that BJP’s margin in Shardol Lok Sabha shrunk, in Lakhimpur Congress gained 8% vote share (although BJP won), and in West Bengal assembly bye-elections BJP lost. This is enough to prove that the public did not support demonetisation.

Firstly, it was the media that made the bye-elections a referendum on the demonetisation, and then conveniently back-tracked post results:


Secondly, Bahl has viewed the results from a myopic angle, so as to get data which suits his final argument. The BJP won in Shardol and Lakhimpur, it also increased its margin in Nepanagar (which Bahl skipped). In Arunachal, BJP wrested the Hayuliang seat from Congress (which Bahl skipped). BJP also won in Assam and in Tripura, its vote-share surged to 20% in the red bastion, relegating Congress to a distant third. In Bengal too, BJP’s vote share has increased. Overall, BJP has increased its tally from 3 to 5 while the Congress is down from 4 to 1.

Bye-elections are often influenced by local factors and incumbent governments, but if Bahl wants to make them into a referendum for demonetisation, then the verdict is clear.

Finally, the last point:

Bloomberg-Quint's 3rd senseless infographic
Not just faux-economics, Bahl flashes his faux-statistics too.

3. The ‘Official Spin’ here is the narrative that public are overwhelmingly in support of the scheme, based on various surveys and polls.

Here, Bahl’s spin is basically trashing Huffington Post-C Voter’s survey and also that on the PM’s app. And the trashing itself is juvenile:

Was it conducted on the phone? On the internet? In one-on-one field interviews? How large was the sample? On which dates was the poll conducted? Right after November 8, or on November 20? How was the question framed?

What Bahl wants to ignore is just the results, which show an overwhelming majority of people in support of the scheme. These results are not just shown in the C-Voter poll or the Narendra Modi App poll, but also on most polls conducted online.

And if Bahl wants to trash surveys, then why he didn’t trash this poll posted on Bloomberg-Quint which was only conducted online, that too among just 601 people? Or this poll on Bloomberg-Quint which had a sample size of just 1002 (lower than the C-Voter sample)?

The point is such flimsy, shallow remarks can be made about any opinion poll or survey, just because you don’t like them. Of course, if Bahl had spoken out about unscientific polls like this one on demonetisation on Times Of India, which allows multiple votes per person, thus leaving it vulnerable even to a code, then it would a fair criticism.

In the end, going by Bahl’s earlier lousy post, and this even lousier post, which claims to profess economics on a business news portal, is basically a joke on the concept of business journalism or rather any kind of journalism in India.

Nonetheless, we finally know from where Rajdeep Sardesai got his smarts (for the uninitiated, Raghav Bahl was also the founder of Network18, where Rajdeep worked for most of his TV journalism career).

Try harder next time Mr Bahl. Until then, Ciao.

UPI – all you need to know; how to set up and transact (step-wise guide with pics)

Aditya (reviewero)
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UPI – all you need to know; how to set up and transact (step-wise guide with pics)

Everyone is talking of UPI payments and how it changes everything in the world of digital payments. It is being touted as the major driver that will take us to being a cashless economy, along with mobile wallets.

For most of us it remains that elusive genie that will make all our payment wishes come true IF ONLY we knew how to rub the lamp the right way. Welcome to OpIndia’s simple no BS guide to UPI, where we tell you how to get started with UPI in under 10 minutes.

Let’s go!

So what is UPI?

UPI is short for Unified Payment Interface. It’s the netbanking transfer for the mobile first generation. Quick to setup, quick to transfer money to another account. No bank account number needed, no logging in, no waiting, and no IFSC code. All you need to know is a username (called VPA or Virtual Private Address) to send money to anyone within seconds.

Why was UPI needed?

Netbanking wasn’t as efficient and quick. Netbanking was made for the internet; to make it secure, the extra steps required made the whole process of transferring money cumbersome, even with IMPS. A Mobile first solution like UPI takes away a lot of friction as we will see. It’s available 24×7, including on holidays.

Say, you need to buy from your local shop or local supermarket. You don’t want to take note of their bank details, add and confirm them as beneficiary, and then log into your netbanking or mobile banking app each time you buy something, where you would need to wait for OTP and provide information like those grid numbers on the back of your debit card. That’s just too much of work when all you have bought is a box of chips and some cold drinks!

How it’s different from mobile wallets?

Mobile wallets are apps that hold your money. With a Wallet you add money from your bank account using net banking or bank cards. The UPI app transfers money from one bank account directly into other just like netbanking IMPS transfer, there is no need for 3rd part apps to hold the money anymore.

So will UPI kill mobile wallets?

Wallets provide an added layer of security and also have a lot of 3rd party integrations that make it easier to pay your bills and make payments at stores or cab services. For example, you can add money to PayTM wallet and use it to pay bills, recharge phone, shop their own marketplace or other online merchants and pay for your Uber rides. UPI apps and ecosystem will take some time to get there, but once it does the charm of wallet apps will certainly go down.

Mobile wallets won’t just vanish, and they will need to innovate and make them more attractive than UPI payments, which currently they are due to ease of payments and lots of offers that they have. Most probably wallets will add UPI as one of the options for payment and not rival them.

What can I do with UPI now?

For now, you can use UPI to pay for everything you have been using netbanking transfers for. You’ll need the receiver’s VPA, and if they don’t have it, you’ll have to ask them to install a UPI app first.

(Update: UPI transfers can take place even on feature phones where no VPA or UPI app will be needed – as is explained here – but the scope of this article is about currently available apps on smartphones)

But since it’s so easy and useful and removes the need for wallet apps for certain transactions, you will soon see everyone using it for things like paying for cabs, paying at the local store, or splitting their expenses.

How much we can do with it will depend on how fast we can all move to UPI payments. For now, play with it and tell your friends about this new cool way to split your weekend bills.

Can I start using UPI immediately?

If you have a bank account, and if you have enabled netbanking and mobile banking i.e. if you have generated an MPIN (usually 4 to 6 digit long depending on the bank) for your account, you are ready to use UPI. Remember that your phone number, where you are going to install this app, must be linked to at least one such bank account.

How do I get this UPI app?

There are about 28 different apps on Google Play (Android apps store) alone. You can search for “Your_Bankname UPI” (e.g. ICICI UPI) to find a UPI app by your bank. Remember that you should be downloading the official app of your bank.

(Update: Unfortunately, not many official apps are available for iOS yet. TrupayIndia app can be used to receive money so far. So Apple users will have to wait till banks come out with iOS versions)

But the beauty of UPI is that you don’t need to use your own bank’s apps if they have not yet come up with one. You can use any of those official and trusted apps that show up when you search for UPI apps.

In this post we will focus on UPI app by Flipkart called PhonePe, which is in partnership with Yes Bank, and Axis Bank’s UPI Pay app, which I think are the easiest to use so far of all apps (Pockets by ICICI comes a close third but is super feature rich, so try that too).

Once you download a UPI app, it will ask you to verify your phone number by sending and receiving SMS. In the next step you provide basic details like name, email, and set a 4 digit Pin.

How do I transact with UPI?

Step 1: Download and install a UPI app

Pick any of the apps when you search for UPI apps in app stores. I recommend PhonePe app, Axis Pay UPI app, or Pockets by ICICI.

This article will guide you with PhonePe app, but other apps will have mostly similar steps for registration and transaction.

Various UPI apps in Google Play

Step 2: Launch app and register yourself

First verify your number. UPI system populates your bank account details and authenticates using phone number linked with your bank account. So install on phone with the number linked to your bank account only.

Your mobile number is linked with the UPI app

After number is verified, provide some basic details like Name and Email, and set a 4 digit password (Pin). If you ever forget your Pin, which you need for logging into the UPI app every time you use it, you’ll need access to your email to recover it.

Create your UPI account

Step 3: Add a virtual password address aka UPI Username

Just like your email, your UPI virtual password address (VPA) is your UPI ID which others will use to send you money. It’s of the form myupi@ybl or yurupi@icici (no .com needed). You can create up to 3 VPAs on PhonePe app and cannot delete them later yet, so be careful with your selection.

Swipe left to right to bring up the menu and press your number to go to your profile.

UPI profile on Phonepe app

Find “Add VPA” option and add a VPA. Pick something easy to remember and spell out. Doesn’t have to be your name. For example, I could create one as myupi@ybl

VPA is not case sensitive so MyUPI@ybl is same as myupi@ybl

Add VPA to your UPI app

Step 4: Add a bank account

It’s easy. Swipe left to right. Go to Bank Accounts menu and press Add Bank Account button. Then select your bank. Your bank account linked with your phone number will be added without you needing to enter anything such as account number. You can add more than one account if you have multiple bank accounts linked to the same number.

It will also show you if an MPIN exists for that bank account. If not, you can create one by going to your banking app or website (some apps allow you to generate that without leaving the UPI app. You may need to enter your Debit Card details). If you have forgotten your bank MPIN, you can reset it from within the app:

Add your bank account to the UPI app

And that’s it, with your bank account linked and VPA created, you are set to send and receive payments now. Let’s do a quick transaction.

Your first transaction

Step 1: Go to app home and click Send

UPI app home screen

Step 2: Go to VPAs and click Add VPA Contact

If you don’t have any one whose VPA you know, you can try sending Re 1 testupi@sbi – a working VPA we have created for testing purpose. You can also download other UPI apps like Pockets by ICICI and Axis Pay, create new VPAs, and send yourself money from other apps.

After you enter a VPA, you have to click verify button and it will verify if VPA is valid and also show registered name of the recipient (not shown in picture below for privacy reasons).

Add a VPA contact

Step 3: Enter amount you’d like to send

When it asks you if you’d like to send money now, accept ‘Yes’ and move to the ‘send’ screen. Type the amount you want to send and from which linked bank account. As you can see from the screen you can even choose to send Re 1.

Enter amount that you have to send

You will be taken to a screen by NPCI (National Payments Corporation of India) within the UPI app, where you will need to enter MPIN of the bank account linked to that VPA.

And done!

Confirmation of the UPI payment

All this takes less than a minute.

Receiving money is even easier (it always is!). Remember that the money will come to the bank account that is associated as the default account with your VPA (that you provide someone for receiving the money).

Lots of UPI apps will let you pay bills and split bills with friends too. Some apps also have a QR code scan where you can send or accept money just by showing someone your QR code or scanning their QR code without having to enter VPAs.

Following is the a test QR code we created that is associated with testupi@sbi VPA. You can try transferring Re 1 by scanning it (we tested it on PhonePe app and it worked):

QR code for testing UPI payments

So in future, your local store could ask you to just scan their QR code to pay them directly from your bank account to theirs without any worries of looking for cash.

Remember that with UPI, currently your transaction value must be within 1 lakh rupees within India. For higher amount, you will have to use netbanking or traditional banking.

So try out these apps and let us know which ones you find easier to use. Still got questions? Ask away in the comments section below.

Media reports claim that 70% trucks are off roads in India, really?

Guest Author
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Media reports claim that 70% trucks are off roads in India, really?

A couple of days ago, I came across a tweet from Business Standard that somebody I follow had retweeted. The tweet mentioned that about 70% of all trucks in India were off roads due to demonetisation. I was shocked, and so should be every citizen, because 70% is a huge number and trucks form the backbone of our supply chain.

Soon this news, based on claim by one transport union guy, was all over the media, reported as fact in the headlines:

70% trucks
Same report repeated across media platforms

Reading this, I was especially shocked as I wondered if I was completely away from the reality of the sector I work in! I run a warehousing company in Hyderabad and am also the founder of Boxoffice Logistics – an online trucking solution in the B2B segment.

I operate out of a place called Kompally, a suburb of Hyderabad city along the Nagpur National Highway. Kompally and nearby areas literally hold 75-80 % of total warehousing space of Hyderabad. These warehouses handle both primary and secondary warehousing needs of Hyderabad and Telangana area in general.

On 8th November, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that there would be demonetisation of 500 and 1000 rupee notes, like everybody we too faced difficulty for first couple of days. And it was more out of confusion than anything else. Things have returned to normal for most of us.

Transportation industry works for upcountry (long distance) and intra-city logistics. Most of industry these days is fragmented and small in fleet size. Trucks are stationed in “transport addas” waiting for business and nearby requirements. Most cities have these addas on all the outskirts serving particular local requirements. Although there is no fixed number to claim what percentage of this business is done in cash and cheque, we believe that they are roughly split 50-50. Primarily, the organised transport companies take cheques and Letters of Credit (LCs) and unorganised truckers prefer cash (a part taken in advance for fuel needs and toll charges, and rest on delivery).

trucks standing
A typical transport adda in the outskirts of Hyderabad.
Transport adda at Kompally in Hyderabad
Another view of an adda. If 70% of trucks were off road, most of them should have been standing here.

Now I should have seen a huge pile of trucks building up at these addas if 70% were to be off the roads as the news reports claimed. But no, there was no unusual overcrowding. The above two pictures were taken by me in the last two days after I read the news reports. So what was the truth? I wondered.

You don’t need to be in the business like me to realise that 70% of trucks being off road would have created a catastrophe and curfew like situation, with basic essentials like food and medicines prices shooting through the roof and people hitting the roads in rage. While some on the social media might wish to see such catastrophe to declare demonetisation a failure, we didn’t see those. And it’s been two days now since the report was carried by many in the media.

In the last two days, while praying that no catastrophe strikes if the news reports were true, I have been talking to people in the industry to find the truth. And this article is to share the information that I could find out – a step that some journalist should have taken up before publishing the staggering figure of 70%.

First I spoke to all my warehouse heads who also take care of transportation handling and requirements. None of them saw any disruption in their day to day vehicle requirements or difficulty in procuring vehicles. These companies operate both upcountry as well as intra-city logistics like retail store fulfilment and direct customer delivery.

I also spoke to Mr. A Sagar, Director or M/s Sagar Asia pvt ltd., a leading name in Aluminium ladders that specialises in industrial as well as domestic use ladders. The company procures at least 15 vehicles for long haul and many more for local delivery in a week.

“We faced issue for the first two days. Since then, it has got back to normal now. We are facing some issues with transporters who used to work on COD (cash on delivery) basis, but we are trying to issue them cheques or holding their credit till liquidity is back with us,” he said.

I also spoke to Mr. Satyanarayana, who runs a transport company locally to gauge the situation from transporter’s point of view. He operates about 60-65 trucks (25 owned and rest on contract) of both upcountry and intra-city logistics for leading e-commerce and brick and mortar retail companies.

Satyanarayana conveyed the same thing. “The business is slightly down for people who operate in cash (most of them in intra-city logistics), but overall situation is more or less back to normal,” he said. He revealed that many transporters were now operating in cheques or small payments are taken in E-wallets.

He further said that most truckers have started to use fuel cards and debit cards and carry small change for toll charges (while no toll charges are being collected on national highways, some state highways still charge) for upcountry needs. Satyanarayana added that he was happy with the demonetisation move as it will help the country in the long run.

Digging even deeper, I got in Touch with Mr. Eashwar Rao, General Secretary of Andhra Pradesh Lorry Owners Association based out of Vijayawada, one of the biggest transport hubs in the country.

He says, “Our business has a mix of organised transporters and unorganised ones. There has been no impact on the organised transporters, but about 30% of unorganised transporters who operate on cash on delivery basis have suffered. Most affected are the reverse trips businesses, where cash is paid normally.”

He said that his association was in the process of educating all the Transporters about going cashless and training drivers to operate debit cards and fuel cards.

Mr. Rao had a suggestion to PM Modi and Mr. Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister for Petroleum. “Currently we are forced to carry three different PSU oil company fuel cards and are spending our working capital in all three different cards. We would suggest that all the PSUs should come together and release one common card for fuel usage. It would help us in a big way.”

Probing further, he says, “We expect this situation to continue till January and we feel it is good for everyone in the long run. Yes, there are people impacted, but news of 70% of total trucks going off roads in all is false. Ground situation is far removed from such a number.”

I have a business to run and taking time out to talk to these people was a little bit of bother. Even these people are busy with their day to day operations, but they took time out for me to discuss this. Ideally this should have been done by a journalist, whose job is to talk to people and cross verify a claim.

But why work hard when you can just copy paste someone’s claims? It is indeed sad that we citizens have to do media’s job of fact-checking and cross verification. But I feel good about it, and I hope my findings are shared too, and the misinformation spread by the media is countered.

(Written by Sundeep Reddy. He is the founder of Boxoffice Logistics and Zeromile Warehousing. He can be reached on twitter @sundeepgummadi)

Six things Modi government can do to deliver after the demonetisation pain is over

Gaurav
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Six things Modi government can do to deliver after the demonetisation pain is over

There have been numerous economic and pseudo-economic posts weighing the costs and the benefits of the massive demonetisation exercise. People are trying to calculate the number of days it will take to replenish the shortage of cash, the cost of printing new notes, the benefits from tax collected on unaccounted wealth, etc.

But there is one cost which cannot be measured in numbers: The political cost.

A recent survey, highlighted the mood of the people regarding demonetisation as follows:

Almost 94% of the respondents felt this was a good step. That is huge. Considering BJP got barely 33 odd % of the popular vote in 2014, if 94% people support his move then he has truly struck a cord across political lines, irrespective of what the various opposition parties and their leaders are saying.

But, this 94% support came with riders:

  • 27% felt it was poorly implemented.
  • 36% felt that this move was hurting the poor the most.
  • 66% felt that the move had negatively affected them at least a little, some saying it had hurt them a lot.
  • 73% felt that the Government could have planned this better.

The saving grace was that a huge 85% odd people felt that all this inconvenience was worth it. This is the key. The survey did not ask this question, but it was worth knowing: Why people think all this is worth it, and how do they think they will personally benefit.

And this is the point which will haunt the Modi Government once the initial euphoria is over. Right now, the common man is bearing with the pain, hoping and expecting that some good will come out of this, like a pregnant woman, bearing discomfort for 9 months, knowing that at the end of it all, the joy of holding her baby in her hands will make up for all the pain.

This “baby” is what the Modi Government must deliver. Not now, not after 6 months maybe, but by the end of 2017 odd, if people do not see this “baby”, then it will not take much time for the opposition to whip up passions against the Government.

So how can the Government deliver the baby? The unprecedented collection of taxes due to deposits of hitherto un-taxed money, will fill up the coffers of the Government. And the people will expect to get their fair share in return. The lie told a thousand times that Modi will give Rs 15 lacs to each Indian from black money stashed abroad has already become an urban truth, and this demonetisation can become another such thorn.

The Modi Government might as well think along the lines of using this windfall to speed up development, by funding infrastructure projects, or social welfare schemes, or juicing up ailing sectors like railways, but will this work? In my opinion, the people of this country will demand some tangible, clear, objectively ascertainable good, coming out of all this. And to demonstrate this, the Government may have to consider any or all of the below:

1. Lower Interest rates on loans

This is probably the lowest hanging fruit and something which will happen very soon, which has already started. As the banks are flush with funds, the laws of economics will force them to lower interest rates. But this is a double edged sword. Across the board interest rate cuts can be twisted by the opposition as huge benefits passed on to “suit-boot” corporates, so indirectly the common man subsidises loans of the rich? Secondly, lower rates on loans will also mean lower rates on Fixed Deposits, again hurting the common man. Both these aspects will have to be tackled.

2. Lower Personal Income Tax Rates

The Union budget has been advanced to 1st February, and this will be soon after the 30 December deadline of demonetisation is over. This would be the ideal time to slash the direct taxation rates drastically. Expectations would be high as it is, since the last 2 budgets did not have any major sops. Add to this the demonetisation impact. The time for small-scale tinkering is over. The Government will have to announce a major shift in personal taxation rates, maybe keeping a very low rate for a large initial threshold, so that the net doesn’t shrink, but the existing tax payers get a relief.

3. Lower GST rates

This is the hardest one to crack. The Central Government’s hands will be tied by the GST council which comprises of all the states. The BJP states still my cede some ground, but the others may play spoil sport.  A cut in the media rate of say 1-2% would have a huge impact.

4. Direct Benefit Transfers

A section of the media has already reported this as a possibility and Arvind Kejriwal also has demanded this. And the Government may very well use this method. All the funds can just directly be transferred either in one shot or via staggered payments. For this to be implemented without any hiccup and leakage, the JAM (Jan Dhan- Aadhaar-Mobile) trinity will have to be functional soon, and this has been hinted by I & B Minister Venkaiah Naidu. If this actually works, it would be a huge step, paving the way for further subsidies to be deposited directly into the accounts of the needy.

5. Lower taxes on petrol/diesel

Internationally crude oil prices have been falling but the fall of prices of petrol and diesel in India has not been proportionate. The reason being the Government increased taxes at every stage so as to pass on lesser benefits of falling prices. This of course helped the Government at the macro-level, improving the fiscal position. It would be the perfect time to finally reduce the taxes on fuel, by using this demonetisation windfall to offset the losses.

6. Super populist welfare schemes

Another option before the Government would be to roll out some strong welfare schemes. We have already seen the PM roll out some insurance schemes, but something like a universal healthcare scheme or a medi-claim scheme could be a game-changer. The BJP Government in Goa has already rolled out something similar where the insured can get reimbursement of medical treatment expenses of upto Rs 2.5 lacs even in private hospitals, at a small premium, with the Government bearing the lion’s share of the premium.

Manmohan Singh spoke, and Twitter can’t stop talking about it

OpIndia Staff
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Manmohan Singh spoke, and Twitter can’t stop talking about it

Former Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, who was renowned to keep mum and speak only when the Congress high command allowed him to, spoke for quite some time (by his standards) in the Parliament today. And this rare incidence made Twitter take note and come up with some running commentary.

Dr. Singh was speaking on demonetisation, and he termed it an organised loot and legalised plunder. Well, terms like “loot” and “plunder” did make people recall his UPA government:



Though there was some confusion about what exactly was this “loot”:


He further said that the implementation of demonetisation was monumental management failure. While some criticism of implementation is entirely valid, it did leave people wondering what would have Manmohan Singh done:


Dr. Singh, an Economist and former RBI governor too, predicted that GDP could go down by 2% due to demonetisation. This led to many journalist go gaga over how erudite and capable our former Prime Minister was. Unfortunately, we saw some other kind of Economics when he was in the office:


He also repeated Keynes’ quote of “In the long run, we are all dead.”, well is that the secret of UPA governance:


Some journalists were so moved and impressed that the leftist blog Scroll declared that now historians will treat Manmohan Singh kindly – a wish he had expressed while in the last days of his office. And obviously that wish will be fulfilled:


However, some “trolls” were still not impressed with Manmohan Singh’s economics:


All in all, while some journalists were all starry-eyed and wished for return of Congress, almost everyone was surprised at this turnaround in Manmohan Singh’s character. He had found a voice:


This magical turnaround of Dr. Singh’s personality was listed as successful outcomes of demonetisation:


While wondering about this turnaround, some wished he had brought this change in his character earlier:


And well, who knows this might have happened. Old habits die hard:


Or maybe this might have happened. Old habits again:


There were many more tweets, but well, we should stop now, because:


Nonetheless, well done Dr. Manmohan Singh!

Kejriwal’s lies and the complicit silence of Indian ‘left-liberals’

Gaurav
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0
Kejriwal’s lies and the complicit silence of Indian ‘left-liberals’

Its been a couple of weeks since Donald Trump won the US Presidential elections in a total upset. The media in the US, the leftists, the liberals and all the people in that intersection had declared Hillary the winner a long time back. Even back in India, this same set of nearly homogeneous people had their money riding on Hillary Clinton. Of course Trump won and we saw how even Indian left-liberals went into a meltdown mode.

And Indian leftist’s troubles with Trump are not over yet. A few days back, this Tweetstorm was shared by many Indian left liberals, which voiced concerns over how media should behave when your own President elect uses fake news. The issue was simply this: Trump put out a tweet in which he claimed credit for stopping a Ford manufacturing plant from moving to Mexico and thereby saying he managed to protect American jobs. Most media houses reported this verbatim, with the usual “Trump claims….”.

But later it was apparently revealed that what Trump had tweeted wasn’t really true. So this tweetstorm made the point that media should stop reporting unverified claims from a few tweets, even if they were from the President elect.

To rewind: Indian citizens, had an issue with US media running a piece of pure reportage, based on the fake claims made by the US President elect.

We at OpIndia.com have always advocated that media should be more vigilant and although this may seem to be media going beyond their real role of just “reporting”, it is a valid concern since if someone is misusing the media to deliver fake propaganda, he must be stopped.

Cut to India, and for the past two weeks India has been engulfed in its own storm of demonetisation. And just like they have Trump in the US, we have a certain Arvind Kejriwal in India. Sure he is nowhere close to leading the country (small mercies) but he’s playing Trump’s game here.

First, Arvind Kejriwal held a press conference where he claimed that there was a surge in bank deposits in September, and this was proof that details of the demonetisation scheme had been leaked and the culprits had already deposited their money in banks. We had thoroughly debunked this cooky theory here.

Next, Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party was caught on Facebook using news items of November 2015 regarding an RBI strike, trying to create confusion in November 2016.

Next, Kejriwal was seen getting worked up and aggressive just because a journalist challenged his figures relating to deaths due to demonetisation, a claim which was debunked here.

Next, Kejriwal was caught sharing picture of a dead robber, claiming that the man was actually a victim of demonetisation. The original tweet has been deleted, the original rumour monger deactivated his account for a while, but Kejriwal’s tweet furthering this lie is still present.

Next, Kejriwal was caught sharing a news article by an unknown website which had claimed that a 2014 news report of SBI planning to advance a loan to Adani had happened now. The site subsequently retracted, but again, Kejriwal’s propaganda tweet continued as it is.

Indian left-liberals, the “intellectuals”, the media personalities, the comedians, the social media heroes, the columnists, the chat-show staples, who were so pained to see Trump misusing social media and mainstream media, were conspicuous by their absence when all these lies by Kejriwal were being exposed.

Their hearts weep when Trump lies, but when Kejriwal lies they look the other way. Not a single of Kejriwal’s false claims was exposed by them. Why?

As far as Kejriwal is concerned, his lies have not stopped in spite of being exposed on a daily basis. Does Kejriwal not know what he speaks is utter crap? Sure he knows it. Then why isn’t he stopping?

Both these questions are related. The left-liberals are happy to turn a blind eye to Kejriwal’s lies and Kejriwal gets further encouraged to continue lying when he sees his support base or even those who don’t overtly support him but are in a position to counter him, stay silent. This is why, Indian left-liberals are complicit in Kejriwal’s lies.

Firstly they do not realise that in the process of furthering their political agenda via Kejriwal, they are doing irreparable damage to the nation and national interest. Yes, the word “national” and its derivatives have become a cuss-word for some of these leftists, but it is a fact that when a leader like Kejriwal, who is an IIT-ian, an ex-IRS officer, is allowed to lie brazenly, he is damaging the country’s prospects. This is not to say that valid, factual criticism is not welcome, but the Kejriwal brand of lies is certainly not desirable.

They may think that by giving a serial liar like Kejriwal a free-run, they are furthering the anti-Modi, anti-BJP, anti-Right Wing cause, thereby giving a fillip to the left-liberal resurgence, but they are mistaken. Today, the only leaders vying to be Modi’s rivals at the national stage are Rahul Gandhi and Arvind Kejriwal. Rahul Gandhi is thoroughly disgraced for his repeated shows of ineptitude. That leaves the entire left-liberal hopes pinned on Kejriwal. And Kejriwal’s habitual lying, which may get him traction with the uninformed, is doing a great harm to his credibility and the entire left-liberal cabal.

Social media has penetrated large sections of Indian discourse and Kejriwal’s lies keep getting exposed repeatedly. This, reduces Kejriwal’s worth in the eyes of the public and thus, if and when Kejriwal raises a genuine concern, that too will be dismissed by most as a tin-foil-hat theory or just outright lies. This, damages the prospects of the only hope the Left Liberals have. And they have only themselves to blame for it.

It is time, these silent protectors of Kejriwal woken up from their self-induced slumber. Social media must start egging them to take off their blinkers and smell the rancid coffee which Kejriwal has brewed. If not for the country (since it appears they care more for the US than India), they need to speak up at least to save the idea of a credible political opposition in India.

Kejriwal will not stop if those from the Right Wing expose him, but if the people closer to home show the courage to speak up, there might still be some hope. Else no one will believe anyone who talks about “new politics” again, and worse, “truth” will not be seen as a liberal value anymore.

The Greek demagogue, and how the modern Right could be the New Left

Saumya Dey
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The Greek demagogue, and how the modern Right could be the New Left

There is a 1995 edition Oxford Concise English Dictionary lying upon my bookshelf. I rarely refer to it these days. It is handier to seek the help of the internet to learn the meaning of an unfamiliar word than pick up a sixteen hundred page tome. Nevertheless, yesterday I felt like finding out how the Oxford Concise explains the word ‘demagogue’. This was chiefly to be able to be politically and historically contextualize the demagogue with acuity.

I wanted to be cognizant of the meaning(s) of the word with as much precision as possible. I was keen on this exercise because I find demagogues an interesting phenomenon – their verbosity and flamboyance makes them so. Only a few days ago the most powerful country in the world has made known its preference, to the consternation of a lot of sophisticated folks, for the rough-hewn manners of an alleged demagogue.

I discovered that the Oxford Concise ascribes two meanings to ‘demagogue’:

  1. a political agitator appealing to the basest instincts of a mob
  2. a leader of the people, esp. in ancient times.

Both the meanings have their own distinct significance as they are repositories of specific historical experiences. The first meaning represents the political experience of the modern world, especially of the first half of the twentieth century. The “basest instincts of a mob” do seem to be the context and validation of a demagogue when we hark our minds back to the developments in Germany and Italy between the two World Wars.

However, the second of the two meanings is the historically original one. It is also more sensible from a purely etymological (science of the origin of words) point of view. The word demagogue is derived from Greek ‘demagogos.’ It is a compound of two words – demos, meaning the people, and agogos, meaning to lead. To the ancient Greeks demagogues were simply popular leaders, they were individuals who lent voice to the aspirations of the people and fought political battles on their behalf. In other words, in ancient Greece, particularly Athens, the city-state where democracy originated, the word demagogue carried absolutely no negative charge. It was not a pejorative.

Might I say, on my part, that the Greek demagogues were the ancient equivalents of the modern day ‘leftists’? After all, to be on the ‘left’ means, in modern political language, to be in some way on the side of the ‘people.’

A curious phenomenon is afoot in the major democracies of the world. They are witnessing political assertion by the hoi polloi – the great mass of commoners – on a massive scale. Most of Mr. Trump’s votes, for example, came from the white working class of interior America. The blue-collar white Anglo-Saxon voters of the American hinterland have made their disapproval of the genteel ‘liberal’ upper class of the two coasts. They have done this by electing someone who was being dismissed as a crude rabble-rouser only a few days ago. Taking into account the demographic that chose Mr. Trump, I am tempted to term him a ‘demagogue’ in the classical Greek sense and the not the condemnatory twentieth century one. Yes, for me Mr. Trump is a ‘demagogue’ because the broad American masses, especially the blue-collar working class, voted for him and saw in him probably a leader who spoke for them.

It is also a very leftist thing, mind you, to be endorsed by the working class. True, Mr. Trump has resorted to a kind of language at times which was better avoided, but I won’t identify that as the reason why the blue-collar small town American voter chose him. That will be an extremely patronizing reading of the motivations of this voter demographic.

Turning to Britain, I will identify the Brexit campaigners as ‘demagogues’ too in the historically original sense. To my eyes, they seem to resemble the demagogues of classical Greece. This is because they ran a successful campaign and their program was endorsed largely by the British working class who, probably, saw these campaigners as folks who were speaking on their behalf. Nigel Farage might be the typical left-liberal nightmare, but can one deny that his autarchic economic ideas have resonated with the majority of the British voters? Had they not, we would not have a Britain today that wants to break away from the European Union.

Also, economic autarchism is a leftist thing isn’t it? The Indian left, after all, is against globalization and its ‘detrimental’ impact on the poor and the working class. The Indian left also sighs for the closed economy days of Nehruvian socialism. The closed, autarchic Britain that Farage and company are seeking curiously looks like an Indian leftist utopia.

Returning home, the Indian voters too chose someone in 2014 who had been derided as a demagogue (in the negative sense) by the left-liberal media and political commentators. But I would call Mr. Modi a classical Greek demagogue – a leader trusted (and, it seems to me, even loved to an extent) by the common Indian masses. They identified with him because, perhaps, they saw in him someone who would help them realize their economic and social aspirations – of earning and living better and of making it in life without the advantage of inherited privilege.

In other words, they look to Mr. Modi to help them realize their aspirations to social and economic mobility. After all, Mr. Modi too did not have the advantage of inherited privilege. It is difficult to be more self-made than the current Indian Prime Minister. As a result, I would suggest, Mr. Modi appealed to a large section of Indian voters as a ‘sociological type.’ Post 1991, the economy has thrown up a large number of self-made, successful Indians. Alongside, there is an immense number seeking to emulate this success. They do not want a paternalistic ‘socialism’ that fetters and stymies enterprise. They only want someone who can create for them the right conditions wherein they can realize their aspirations. Perhaps, they think that a self-made man who has emerged from modest circumstances is most likely to do that.

By the way, the people aspiring to social and economic mobility and dismantle structures (social and economic) that favor inherited privilege – is not this a very leftist script? Nevertheless, it is a script that the Indian left has failed to endorse. So, the Indian people gave their mandate to someone who they thought will endorse it.

It appears as though the word ‘demagogue’ has retrieved its original meaning, it has once again come to mean a popular leader who stands for the people. And no, he does not necessarily do this by appealing to their ‘baser instincts.’ This retrieval has, however, happened on the right side of the political spectrum. It has been done by what one might identify as the political right, not the left – the Republicans, the BJP, the Brexit advocates.

There was a time, in the 1960s and 70s, when gender rights activists, critiques of consumerism, votaries of alternative cultures and peaceniks in the west used to be identified as the ‘new left.’ This was to distinguish them from the ‘textual’ left – the Communists who derived their faith from the world view of Karl Marx presented in the Das Capital.

However, I think that there is a fresher, ‘newer’ left now emergent and that is the ‘right’. The right is the ‘new left’ for the people identify with its political language and it resonates with their hopes and aspirations. Sorry, left-liberals!

(Saumya Dey is an Assistant Professor of History at O.P. Jindal Global University.)

Senior AAP leader from Goa goes against Kejriwal, hails demonetisation drive

OpIndia Staff
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Senior AAP leader from Goa goes against Kejriwal, hails demonetisation drive

AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal has been making all sorts of allegations against the Central Government’s demonetisation scheme: He has alleged that some people were already in the know, has outright lied on many issues, and has termed it a big scam.

He had even given a 3-day deadline to the PM to roll it back, after which he had warned that he would be ready for a “kurbaani” (sacrifice) for the country as well:



But even as the AAP supremo is going all-out against the scheme, some leaders have now started taking a different line. Probably AAP’s tallest leader in Goa, and even tipped to be the CM candidate at one time, Dr. Oscar Rebello has come out in support of the demonetisation scheme.

Rebello first shot to fame in 2006-2007 as the (former) convener of Goa Bachao Abhiyan opposing the state government’s new Regional Plan (RP). He has ever since been involved in many social causes as an activist.

Goan media reported that in a press conference, Rebello stated clearly that certain things which happened as a result of demonetisation which are good for the country:

  1. Big blow to counterfeit currency
  2. Almost entirely choked off terror-funding, which will be hugely beneficial for the country
  3. Politicians, builders who hoarded huge amounts of cash, they are completely flummoxed as to what to do with their money

He went on to add that even though the above benefits are seen, the implementation of the scheme has been disastrous and that the market lacks liquidity.

This is a marked departure from all out attack on demonetisation by Kejriwal, who has called the entire scheme a sham and a scam with ulterior motives that is not for the good of the country. AAP has usually shown doors to people, including senior leaders like Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav, when they have differed from Kejriwal’s views, so it remains to be seen whether any action will be taken against Rebello by the central leadership.

However, any action would be difficult since Rebello is the most popular and most credible face of AAP in Goa, and with the assembly elections coming up, any action against him would seem suicidal. For now, Kejriwal may just have to brazen out this embarrassing development.

Reddy’s lavish wedding earns him IT notice, now Congress leader hosts similar wedding

Hemant Bijapurkar
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Reddy’s lavish wedding earns him IT notice, now Congress leader hosts similar wedding

G Janardhan Reddy is a man who has always hogged the limelight for the wrong reasons, be it by being indicted and jailed for the Karnataka mining scam to the recent controversy of him throwing a 500 crore wedding for his daughter around the time when demonetization was announced.

The wedding of his daughter was lavish to say the least, with the wedding cards having LCD screens, and him creating replicas of their ancestral Bellary home at the wedding venue for the effect of seeing his daughter off from his own home.

Such a lavish display of wealth plus his connections with the BJP looked like being an ideal punching bag for the eminent politicians and media persons:



Reddy, on his part clarified that he didn’t spend entire money in cash on a single day, for an event of such a grand scale requires months of preparation. However, that was not going to impress the Income Tax department.

The IT department has now served a notice containing 15 questions notice to Reddy to seek the details of the expenses incurred. His mining company in Bellary also been raided. Not just that, the event management firms which planned and executed his wedding also found taxmen at their doors.

This despite the fact that Reddy was supposed to have declared his wealth under the Income Declaration Scheme (IDS) earlier, as reported here. As pointed out in the report, it is entirely plausible that with such an infamous reputation of having illicit funds, Reddy probably wouldn’t have risked such an ostentatious display of wealth if he didn’t have his flanks covered. Nonetheless, the IT department acted and some celebrity journalists outraged.

Now a similar high scale wedding of the son of the Small-scale Industry Minister of Karnataka, Ramesh Jharkholi has taken place. It has been largely ignored by celebrity journalists and politicians who outraged on Reddy, even though the event took place on early this week.

The wedding had a whopping 1.5 lakh guests in an air-conditioned mandap. A helipad was built for VVIP guests. The day of the wedding clashed with that of a debate in the assembly on an important debate about the drought situation in Karnataka, but the former got the higher priority with many Congress MLA’s skipping assembly for the wedding.

The Congress leader has been fortunate that neither the celebrity journalists have outraged nor the Income Tax department has sent any notice so far. If and when the department does it, would be interesting to see if the notice is welcomed or is spun as a case of political vendetta against one’s opponents.

Mamata’s new found ‘mamata’ for the ‘Poor’ is hypocrisy at best, and criminal at worst

Upendra
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Mamata’s new found ‘mamata’ for the ‘Poor’ is hypocrisy at best, and criminal at worst

Among the politicians who are vociferously opposed to the demonetization initiative undertaken by the Central government, two stand out – Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal. More than anyone else, it has been Mamata who opposed demonetization from day one, labeling it ‘draconian.’

Soon she was joined by Mr. Kejriwal who, let me remind you, came to limelight on the issue of ‘eradicating corruption’, and the other usual suspects Rahul Gandhi, Mayawati, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Sitaram Yechuri, Laloo Prasad Yadav and others of their ilk.

Only in India, it is possible that a politician like Mr. Kejriwal, who got elected on the platform of ‘cleaning up politics and the system’ and ‘eradicating all forms of corruption and black money,’ today stands shoulder to shoulder with Mr. Laloo Prasad Yadav – who is a convicted for siphoning off millions of rupees, that too from animal fodder of all things – protesting against one of the most important initiatives launched in our memory to eradicate corruption.

But the level of hypocrisy exhibited by TMC Chief Ms. Mamata Banerjee is of a whole different level. It is unmatched, and unparalleled.

Reacting to the demonetization issue, Ms. Banerjee had recently said, ‘There are millions of real stories across cities, towns, villages about demonetisation affecting the marginalized. Here is only one example. Tea garden owners have expressed difficulty to pay wages on time. This could lead to frustration among poor workers, most of whom are tribals.’

Perhaps you find it a normal statement from her, but for me it’s nothing less than Hitler claiming that ‘the Jews stand to be persecuted if demonetization is not rolled back.’

It is because the Delhi media has not told you in detail about these tribals and tea garden workers, towards whom Mamata Banerjee is suddenly so compassionate. What Ms. Banerjee has conveniently forgotten is that the tribals and tea garden workers are already STARVING TO DEATH.

Since 2011, when the Trinmool party came to power, over 500 people have starved to death in the tea gardens of Darjeeling, Terai and Dooars. In Red Bank alone, close to 175 people have starved to death till date. Yet, speaking at a TMC rally prior to the recent assembly elections on April 2014, Ms. Banerjee claimed, “there have been no starvation deaths and no one has died of starvation in the tea belts of North Bengal.”

Starving husband and the helpless wife
Starving husband and the helpless wife. For more pictures and a report, click here.

Ignorance is one thing, but willful ignorance and outright denial of facts, especially when one is occupying the chair of a Chief Minister, is criminal and nothing less.

None in the media reported this, but only five days ago, three tea garden workers died due to starvation related malnutrition in the shut tea gardens owned by Duncans. A day before that, a 19 year old girl had died in the shut down Manabari tea garden, as her family could not afford to take her to the doctor.

A helpless mother cries, as her 19 year old daughter is no more. She couldn't afford her treatment.
A helpless mother cries, as her 19 year old daughter is no more. She couldn’t afford her treatment.

Even as I write this, there are, thousands of children who have gone off to sleep on an empty stomach, hundreds of mothers who are dying of starvation, and hundreds of fathers who are suffering from acute malnutrition in the tea gardens of Darjeeling, Terai and Dooars.

Why was Ms. Banerjee silent about their plight till now? And now she’s planning to blame it all on demonetisation?

Ms. Banerjee says, she is concerned about the ‘poor,’ well let me ask her this – what have you done till date, to help eradicate miseries of these people?

Three major tea garden in Darjeeling hills – Dhootrey, Kallej Valley and Peshok are owned by Trinmool Congress Rajya Sabha MP KD Singh. Since mid-2015 his company, the Alchemist Group haven’t paid the workers proper wages, bonuses or ration. Numerous representations have been sent to Ms. Banerjee, including a very high profile visit by GNLF leaders prior to the Bengal assembly elections.

After GNLF announced their support to TMC, Ms. Banerjee had said the issue would be resolved within 15 days. It’s been close to 7 months, and TMC hasn’t done anything to resolve the issue. People in these gardens have continued to suffer, they didn’t get their Dushera or Diwali bonus, neither have they received proper wages. If Ms. Banerjee actually cared, wouldn’t she have taken the Member of Parliament, whom she nominated, to task a year ago itself and made him pay the workers dues?

If she does care for the poor, what’s stopping her from helping the hundreds of thousands of ‘poor’ tea garden workers, who are suffering due to the indifference by her own government?

Moreover, TMC’s close links to numerous ‘chit fund’ companies, which has drained lives savings from millions of poor people is very well known. In our region too, companies like Sharada, Rose Valley, Basil etc. operated freely under the guise of Govt of WB Sanctioned Entity. They literally looted millions of people, and yet the self-nominated ‘champions of poor’ Mamata has not shown any mamata towards them. Why so?

Hundreds of thousands of people had their lives savings wiped out due to Chit-fund. Yet no Mamata concern for them.
Hundreds of thousands of people had their lives savings wiped out due to Chit-fund. Yet no Mamata and concern for them.

In our hills, these victims of ‘chit fund’ companies have organized themselves under the banner of ‘Chit Fund Pidit Janta’ and have continued to send multiple reminders to her office, requesting her to help return their lives savings, yet she has conveniently chosen to ignore them.

So when Mamata uses the shoulders of these very people to train her guns at the center, she stands exposed.

Politics in the name of religion and the ‘poor’ has left millions of our countrymen suffering for decades, and in brazenly asking for the central government to roll back demonetization initiative – citing inconvenience to the poor, Mamata reeks of hypocrisy at best, and criminal at worst.

(Upendra M Pradhan writes the column Voice of Darjeeling for www.darjeelingtimes.com and is editor at large at The Darjeeling Chronicle. Pics courtesy: Pallawib Singcok and Vikki Thapa/ The Darjeeling Chronicle)

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