Ever since the demonetisation announcement by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 8, the opposition and the government are locked in one of the worst political battles since independence. The entire winter session of Parliament was washed out.
Modi government attacked the opposition for “uniting” in favour of corruption and not letting a debate take place in Parliament. But the opposition parties didn’t let the government walk away with a clean face. They blamed the government for deliberately causing misery to crores of honest people in the country, by forcing them to stand in serpentine queues for their own money. Some parties even claimed demonetisation was a grand scam by Modi government to waive off loans of industrialists.
After 40 days of demonetisation, the political battle has reached the streets and no political analyst can claim exactly what would happen next. Even as the BJP enjoys a majority in Parliament, a political uncertainty is perceptible.
Democracy thrives well when there is a certain degree of unity among parties — when opposition supports some visionary decisions of the government and allows it the time to implement them. But these are ironic days of democracy. It appears there is no unity among parties on any issue — be it an action against Pakistani terrorists, the appointment of the next Army chief or bringing all citizens into the formal economic system through demonetisation.
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The opposition is ready to go to any extent to demonise the government. And Government is not taking the attack quietly. The political battle is loud and ugly, hanging on an overburdened balance of democracy. However, the prevailing chaos has presented Prime Minister Narendra Modi a rare opportunity to cleanse Indian politics.
This is one rare moment in Indian politics when all parties are vowing to support any step against corruption. All parties have supported the Election Commission’s recommendation to ban all anonymous donations over Rs 2000 to political parties.
On Monday, the PM urged EC to “pressurise” political parties to hold consultations on the matter. But, why should only EC do so?
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PM Modi can take a lead in this regard by making all donations to BJP public. He can even declare open the cash transactions by BJP MPs and MLAs in the last three-four months. Other parties would be forced to follow and, may be, then the PM can literally say demonetisation is a ‘yajna’ against corruption.
Great leaders use chaos to introduce something unimaginable in normal times. PM Modi can use demonetisation chaos to cleanse political parties of corruption. The iron is already hot. Will he strike it?