Noteban Blackhole

“When God closes all the doors… 

He leaves a window open”.

All the Opposition political parties and politicians who were protesting demonetisation for over a month must feel like fools now. If anyone has the slightest feeling they were protesting over long queues or anyone suffering – then they should get rid of that notion. An entire session of parliament was wasted because of these protests. Those parties who were protesting because they thought their excess black money will go up in flames can now relax. They have been bailed out through magnificent black-holes in the demonetisation policy. Here is the essence of this:

Political parties can deposit ANY AMOUNT of cash they claim to be holding and collected prior to November 8, 2016. The “suspect” barrier of 2.5 lakhs DOES NOT apply to them as it does to other citizens and entities.

Now, that isn’t just a loop-hole. It is a massive BLACK HOLE in the demonetisation system. For those who thought some new laws were made or policy statements issued on December 16, they are wrong. Nothing new was done on December 16. The facts with respect to political party finances remain unchanged. These rules and laws are:

# Political parties are exempt from income tax.

# Political parties can collect cash donations up to 20000 without having to disclose names of donors through “coupons” or simple cash receipts.

# Political parties are liable file IT returns and returns with EC. They are also liable to be scrutinised by both these authorities in case of fraudulent donations.

Some people grandly claim on Social Media that Modi-supporters are wrongly interpreting some statements by Finance Babus as being “new laws” or “new rules”. To repeat NOTHING NEW was announced on December 16. The only hole in demonetisation that got exposed on December 16 was this:

Yes indeed. The black-hole is that political parties were assured by ModiSarkar and their Babus that their black money is safe. They can deposit any amount with them in old notes till December 30 and there is nothing to worry. So where do these political black money hoarders benefit? Here is how:

# For ordinary folks, any deposit of old notes over 2.5 lakhs that does not match with regular IT returns and pattern of income will be scrutinised and penalties levied if found to be black money.

# This condition DOES NOT apply to political parties. That being so, the scrutiny of political party deposits will be merely at the whims of GOI and the IT guys.

Now, you and I know there has hardly been a case where a political party has been raided or penalised by IT department for hoarding black money. This report by Timesnow on December 16 quoting an ADR report on Congress cash donations should tell you a story:

That pattern could be true to a large extent for most political parties even during the period 2013 to November 8, 2016. After all, political parties are the biggest beneficiaries and also the root-cause for black money and corruption in the country. This tweet by Reuters is just one piece of information that was reported meaninglessly without any chain attached to it:

Now, where is the need to even clarify that by the media or any dumb Babu? Since the notes were illegal post November 8 is it not obvious that collections only up to November 8 can be deposited or that no old notes should be accepted after November 8? But is that actual practice? NO! It is not. That’s how clever politicians are. Now, this deadline can work only and only if one question can be answered:

Have all political parties declared their stocks of cash as at midnight November 8? Was it mandatory for parties to declare their cash holdings to IT or EC by November 9 evening? NO!

That is the second escape route. First was no 2.5 lakh limit (as with ordinary people and entities) for scrutiny and second, no declaration of cash holdings as at November 8 by these parties was sought. Fantastic!

So, legally the IT will scrutinise a political party deposits on WHAT BASIS? NOTHING! Supposing a political party which had a deposit pattern of only cash collections of 10 crores per month suddenly deposits 300 crores on or before December 30, what will the IT or EC do? NOTHING! What CAN they do? NOTHING! What will GOI do? NOTHING.

Even if the November 8 deadline were to be religiously followed, remember that political parties can collect cash up to 20000 from unknown, unnamed individuals through a coupon or receipt LIMITLESSLY. In other words, I can show a collection of 200 crores from October to November 8 (or even July to November 8, if you like) through coupons and back-dated receipts showing 20K received from thousands of unknown individuals in OLD notes. And then I deposit these notes into the bank by December 30. Who will question me and why? In fact, as a political party, I can go one better. I can even LAUNDER black money for others. This is an instant rough example I gave but you and I can refine it even more but it’s not necessary. You can refine this to be flawless and so can I:

Political parties have experts in “Cooking” books. Oftentimes, even their friendly IT official will teach them (or anyone) how to treat transactions in books. Politicians and political parties are the LEAST SCRUTINISED by IT because they are exempt from tax and any govt of the day protects other political parties and politicians. There are rare cases of disproportionate assets of “individual” politicians (Mulayam, Mayawati, Late Jayalalithaa etc) but those were more politically-driven than by IT or law-driven. Thus, our courts have exonerated each of these politicians named.

So why were the political parties up in arms and ranting so much against demonetisation. Were these people seriously bothered about ordinary folks in queues or ATMs or any deaths or farmers? NO! Not at all! Because they were fooled into believing this:

That they will also be subject to the same 2.5 lakh “scrutiny” barrier as any other individual or entity. That they will also face hefty penalties like other folks. This fear led them to believe their piles of black money will simply go up in flames.

That’s the only reason they agitated. Else demonetisation doesn’t bother them in the least. Hardships of common folks don’t bother them in the least. Farmer deaths? Congi Karnataka has seen 450 plus farmer deaths since April to October deaths this year? Does Pappu give a damn? No he does not. Even the corrupt NDTV breathes a sigh of relief for political parties based on FiniMin’s assurance that deposits by political parties WILL NOT be scrutinised. They will only be gently quizzed.

Demonetisation has had some positive effects. It has blunted terror-funding a bit. It has blunted the counterfeit note business. It has exposed corruption in banks, public systems and even in the RBI. So the GOI knows corrective actions required if it is willing to take them. But demonetisation WILL NOT affect the most corrupt in this country – Politicians and Political parties. And therein lies the rub!

So, what now PM Modi?

1.    Since you so strongly endorse a Cashless and Digital economy, is it not time you outlawed cash donations to Political parties? Let there be only cheque or digital donations to the parties.

2.   Pass a law that undeclared money and black money with political parties will attract same penalties as any other individual or entity.

3.   Pass a law that late returns and fraudulent IT returns will attract the same penalties and punishments as any other entity.

4.   Bring political parties under RTI. Don’t save your party or any party. Show the people you mean business and want to see the end of corruption in politics.

5.   People trusted you with the demonetisation wholeheartedly. They proved their willingness to fight corruption in politics. It is time you kept your end of the bargain.

Surgical Victims

Recall the Uttarakhand floods of 2013. The most corrupt, inefficient and lethargic Congress govt in the State and the Centre handled the natural disaster in the most callous manner. There were 6000 deaths and a large number of people still unaccounted for. Even Congress puppet Scroll reported compensation wasn’t paid to many even two years after the disaster. DailyMail reported the disaster shamed India’s disaster management system. These are the same Congis and Commies screaming and ranting about the suffering of the poor over demonetisation. This is an economic measure that affects the whole country and not just one small state or corner.

Considering the huge task of feeding new currency notes to banks, exchanging old notes, getting ATMs to work is an extraordinary accomplishment. From the metros and urban areas to mountain regions and far-off NE towns that we may have never heard of, the GOI had the burden and responsibility of reaching new currency to back the demonetisation decision. This was naturally bound to cause a good deal of hardship to people. But they braved the troubles and backed the ModiSarkar over demonetisation because people are sick, tired and contemptuous of black money and corruption. The decision was taken with absolute secrecy and announced suddenly and therefore, naturally, entails a lot of unanticipated problems and issues.

Each day a new set of problems have been attended to promptly and compassionately. This is where ModiSarkar scored over bogus, corrupt detractors. Compare this to the Uttarakhand disaster when the problems were known, resources were flowing in fast and yet the Congress govt goofed up badly. RahulG was vacationing abroad then and returned only to take a “guided tour”. And days later the party itself sent relief supplies in trucks with faces of Sonia and Rahul plastered on the packages. RahulG was the first to queue up at an ATM in a farcical show made for his lipstick salesgirls in the media. The first poor victim of surgical strike against black money. With no logical opposition left with them, the Congis responded with a bizarre claim. Their RS leader Ghulam Nabi Azad stated more deaths were caused by demonetisation than terrorists at Uri. This is the SICKEST form of protest even by the usually low Congress standards:

Ghulam and Congress MPs are all now victims. Firstly, the claim of 40 deaths due to demonetisation itself is dubious. Some of the deaths were proved to have no connection. And the argument is generated by a bogus article by the Commie HuffpostIndia and written by none other than Modi-hater Shivam Vij. It even claims a man died at home watching Modi on TV. Mind you, this is not peak summer when it would have been possible for some weak people to collapse to due to heat or dehydration. Modi’s 92-year old mother went to a bank to exchange notes. So there is good reason to believe any death is incidental or more by a pre-existing cause. It is outright stupid to even link demonetisation to any death whatsoever. Sure, there might be cases where a hoarder or two may have committed suicide because the old notes became garbage.

Earlier, Anand Sharma of the Congress ridiculously claimed that terming it “black money is racist”. And these are the dumb arguments that Congress claims as part of a debate? Their stooges like Shekhar Gupta now mock and pass snide remarks at the phenomenal task being handled by GOI over demonetisation:

A tangled web? It’s all very nice to be poetic but it cannot alter the fact that the surgical strike on black money was created with greatest secrecy and the logistics were phenomenal. It is inevitable that in such a situation new problems and issues will crop up. Only uneducated journalists would assume it would be smooth-sailing when even ordinary folks don’t expect that. Therefore, to adapt, be flexible and handle problems and issues that keep cropping up is a phenomenal accomplishment by ModiSarkar.

Imagine having to drop food-packets in the state of Uttarakhand during the floods and then imagine having to drop currency packages all over the country to every nook and corner of India. This is something scoffing, mocking, Congi-bootlickers like Shekhar Gupta, another unfortunate victim, can neither fathom nor imagine. You and I can because we are not jaundiced with raw hatred that Gupta and his ilk possess for Modi. Predictably, feeding on Gupta’s stupid comment, the “Fashion-street intellectual” Sadanand Dhume from the US chips in with this becoming a “command and control” economy. Laughable!

Yes, indeed! Despite the best efforts of some third-rate CMs people have been peaceful and supported demonetisation by their willingness to go through the pain of long queues, cash-less ATMs and strained wallets. Bill Gates applauded the demonetisation move but Dhume forgets that his adopted country couldn’t tolerate the results of a clear election result and broke out in violence. These desi idiots from US still sermonise and look at Indians here as third class citizens of the world. Indians now laugh at the intolerant Americans while peacefully adapting and welcoming demonetisation to curb black money and corruption.

And as with the Uttarakhand floods when NDTV delivered the country truckloads of lies (Read Floody Frauds) to defend their Congi bosses they did so with the demonetisation issue too. Here is their most Casteist, hate-filled, gutter-level reporter Ravish Kumar, a media victim, peddling a Congress official of Delhi as a poor guy suffering in the Qs at banks:

It is a bit surprising that these silly journos think that in this day and age of SM they can still get away with their stupidity. “Journalists are not very bright people” I keep saying. And they unfailingly keep giving us proof every minute of the day. This same Ravish implied in another street show that the GOI was gobbling up large deposits from the public with which large loans are written off. Does this duffer even make any sense? Does any govt or entity need money from anywhere for a book-based write off of a loan? Writing off debts follows certain accounting standards and principles and has nothing to do with getting cash-flow from anywhere. But media-Pappus like Ravish believe “Who cares, if the public can be fooled, we still win – to hell with facts”. Unfortunately, for such liars, they got roundly booed by the public with chants in favour of Modi.

Ravish faced the same boos as did Twitter CM at Azadpur in Delhi. Cleverly, TwitterCM chose Azadpur Mandi, along with MamataB, instead of Jantar Mantar so that he can force the market to shut down and create panic. Didn’t work! Two poor victims of the surgical strike ganged up to protest. Evidently, people are facing problems but have strongly put their trust in Narendra Modi and these haters are losing their plot by trying to abuse and tar Modi with all kinds of names like Hitler, Fascist, Mussolini etc. So while they stew in their miserable lies, it is still advantage Modi. And nothing is more joyful to watch than the Monkey-Balancer trying to ignite anger or contempt and returning empty-handed with no anti-Modi sentiments to peddle on his quiz-show (Video: 2.20 mins):

Rajdeep is another victim. He is hunting every place to find some anti-Modi abuse but I doubt he will get any unless he meets some of his bosses in Congress. Ordinary people are inclined heavily towards demonetisation. And we shouldn’t forget our Commie friend Sitaram Yechury who grandly claimed in the Rajya Sabha that the “Govt is trying to control your life”. It’s laughable that the biggest control freaks on the earth – the Commies, think GOI is controlling your life because of demonetisation. Yet, these jerks have the freedom to agitate on the streets, shut out parliament, abuse in print and on TV and yet GOI is the one controlling lives. Stupidly enough, Yechury drives home the reason why demonetisation is indeed a forced necessity:

Yechury says 80% of our population is in the informal sector of the economy. He’s another whining victim too. Many will agree and that is the reason many of this percentage who do earn good taxable incomes need to be in the tax system. The problem with Indian economy is too few tax payers and a very vast number of evaders. Demonetisation addresses that problem too and will bring in more tax payers and spread the tax burden fairly over a larger population. But the most hard-hit are not those in queues or struggling with low cash in hand. The ones agitating and rioting the most and using foul language against Modi are politicians themselves with large cash-in-hand and the reason comes in the form of an admission from some corner:

Arvind Kejriwal and AAP have pulled out of Mumbai and Chandigarh municipal elections. I’m not sure AAP is left with enough “cash” to contest Punjab either. Those who are ranting the most against demonetisation have never cared two hoots for the poor, the unemployed or sought equality of all citizens. All those whining have only divided India, pandered to vote-banks and cornered vast amounts of wealth for the party and themselves – mostly in black. Demonetisation is hurting these surgical victims very badly. LET IT HURT!