Brijesh Kumar
Open Letter to Prime Minister Modi
Dear Modi ji,
Money turned to dust
I came to know about the demonetisation of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 notes through a website called Quora. Then, I turned on the TV and saw you declaring the same on the TV. Honestly speaking, I have never hated a decision of any leader more than this decision in my 31 year life. I was flabbergasted and speechless that someone could do it. All the money I had was just paper. I lost my confidence in Rupee. I wanted to withdraw all my money from my bank account and put it in gold because if the government can turn Rs. 500 and 1000 into dust, they can do the same to my bank account overnight. All my money is gone. Who is to stop you from doing that? At least I have control over the gold that I will buy.
Interference from government
The next day, your finance minister, Mr. Arun Jaitley was explaining on DD News that rarely the decisions taken by the government affect the behavior of people, but this decision is such that it will affect the daily lives of people and we will move closer to digital India. Is that the role of the government to force people to take decisions in life. Why should the government interfere with the lives of people to such a degree? If we want to pay cash, we should be allowed to pay cash. How is the government allowed to tell us how to spend our money? Isn't it dictatorship?
No protection from digital fraud
Now, let us say that I accept that we should spend all our money digitally, my question to you is who is going to stop the frauds that will happen in digital transactions. What is the insurance scheme for such frauds? Who is going to give me back my money if it is stolen from my account by a fraudster? If physical money is stolen from me, at least I know whom to blame and what to do. But, if the money is stolen from my bank account, through no fault of mine, mind you, who should be blamed? Who is going to return my money? Please tell me. Recently, there was a breach of so many debit cards. Who is going to save me from a potential breach in the future? Breach is going to happen, it is only a matter of when.
Finance charges of digital transactions
You probably don't know (or may be you know and don't care) that for every digital transaction, the banks charge fees in the order of 1-3% + (some fixed fees for each transaction). Who is going to pay that? Do you think that the seller is going to eat that fees? I can guarantee you that he won’t. You can bring in the regulation that the digital transactions should be the same price as cash transactions. Do you know what is going to happen? The retailers will increase the price for digital as well as cash transactions, so that the bank transaction fees is already included in the price.
Destruction of small businesses (I mean really small)
What is going to happen to general stores on our streets? He sells 1 Rupee toffee every day. Do you expect him to write down each of his one rupee transactions? He should open his credit card machine and ask the child to pay Rs. 1 for his toffee. In the process, he will spend more than Rs. 1 on bank transaction. There is only 1 person running the store. Should he write his each one rupee transaction or serve his customers. Should he open his store everyday or go to the bank to cash his cheques that I have paid him with? You are making the lives of big businesses easy. You are inviting foreigners to come to India and invest, but why are you making the lives of small businessmen difficult? You take a lot of pride in being a chaiwala. How many times did you give a bill for the chai that you sold? Even a chaiwala has black money. I can guarantee that more than 99.99% chaiwalas have black money. Are you going to raid their stores and destroy their black money? What are you doing to save these small businesses? Don't they deserve some special rules that you have made for all the big multinational companies? Don't they deserve any of your love? Will another chaiwala ever become the prime minister of India? Why are you making our India unaffordable for everyone? It cannot be affordable. There is no way that if a person has to give a bill for Rs. 1 toffee, that he can sell it for Rs. 1. He probably has to employ another person that does accounting for him.
I have an idea. The businesses with turnover of less than Rs. 20 lacs per year should be exempt from all kinds of taxes. I request you to do it. But, unfortunately, I know you won't. Because you don't care about your chaiwalas. You have given up your tribe. Now, you are the PM. Common man does not figure in your agenda. All you care about is Mark Zuckerburg coming to India. You want to make life easy for foreigners, but not for your own countrymen. Why, but, why?
Westernization without any order
I came back to India after living in America for 7 years, because I liked the simplicity of India. Now, you are taking away all the simplicity of India. You are forcing us to do banking and deposit our money. You are taking away our freedom. Do you know how difficult it is to deal with government employees? It is an ordeal to go to any bank or government office. Dealing with them gives me headache because all of them think that they are the kings and we are their servants. They make us feel that they are doing great favor to us by doing anything for us. Why are you forcing us to deal with such people? We are not your guinea pigs for your experiments.
Government accountability
You want us to all be accountable, but where is your accountability? Please tell me, why was this decision taken without any planning. You were telling yesterday that you were planning this for the last 9 months. If that is the case, then, either you are very poor in planning or 9 months for insufficient time for such planning. Who will be accountable for the following?
Introduction of Rs. 2,000 note without a Rs. 500 note
Do you know of any chaiwala who will refund you Rs. 1,900 in nineteen Rs. 100 denominations, if you give him a Rs. 2,000 note? I know why you introduced Rs. 2,000 note. Because, you would get rid of your responsibility by giving people Rs. 2,000 notes in an easier manner. Four Rs. 500 notes can be replaced with just one Rs. 2,000 note. What do you care about the people whether they can practically use that money or not for buying essential things?
Death and injury to people
Who is responsible for people who died while waiting in line in the hot sun for your incredibly short sighted decision? Who is responsible for the fights that broke out? Who is responsible for people standing like cattle waiting for the banks to open. They are standing with so much hope that they will get money. The lines are getting longer with each passing day. But, you don't have the cash. Incredible 9 month planning.
Hungry people
People are going hungry for days because they have no money. Are you doing anything for them? Are rich people with black money going hungry or the chaiwalas?
Intolerable working hours for bank employees
Do you know how hard it is to deal with irate customers throughout the day for 12 hours a day? How are the bank employees being compensated for extra working hours?
Wastage of real GDP
All your government wants to do is increase the GDP of the country, so that you can say what great thing that you have done for the country. But, what about the "real" GDP of the country which is being wasted by productive people standing in line because of your decision. Don't you think that it is an incredible waste of the productivity of Indian people? Do you know that half of the shops in my area are closed? Why? People are not coming to buy anything. They have no money.You speak of 50 days as it is nothing. Do you know what will happen to a chaiwala if he has no customers for 5 days, let alone 50 days? You were one, so, you should know.
Terrorism rhetoric
Why does every decision have to backed by terrorism rhetoric? I know. Because you want people to be fooled into believing that what you are doing is very noble. If you were taking such a good decision, you should not have included this incredibly unimaginative "reason" in your speech. What is bigger terrorism than making people go hungry for no good reason? Isn't it terrorism? People died waiting in line. You are not taking responsibility for that.
Banks charging cash handling fees
Banks (at least SBI) are charging cash handling fees for depositing money. I did not want to deposit my money. But, you forced me to. Now, the bank charged me cash handling fee (some Rs. 3 per Rs. 1,000 above Rs. 50,000). They don't even tell you. Only when one checks one statement, one finds out. If you are so honest, why did you not tell me that if I deposit money in my account, bank will charge me fees? This should have been an important part of your address to your nation. That you are going to steal my hard earned money. If you had not made this decision, I would not have to deposit the money in my account and not had to pay the cash transaction fees.
Removal of various social welfare schemes
You have practically removed subsidy for LPG. It is so hard with applying for an aadhaar card, applying for a bank account, seeding the aadhaar with the bank, seeding the aadhaar with the LPG agency. You are making life hell for common people. You have increased the cost of education in IITs. I used to boast to my friends in America that our government is so people friendly. Our education is very inexpensive, but you have destroyed our affordable education system. I am an assistant professor in IIT and I can't educate my own child in IIT on my salary. Don't you think that you have made education unaffordable?
How will you spend the additional income?
You made such a big speech about black money and terrorism. But, you never said what are you going to do with the additional income that you get from all this exercise. I know, why? Because, you don't intend to do anything with it for the welfare of common man. You are going to give more subsidies and attractions for the multinational companies and common man is going to have life more miserable. You will buy more Rafale aeroplanes, but nothing will happen for the common man. You are going to take away more government programs from the common man. What are you going to do for me, a common man, from all the money you are getting from me in the form of taxes? What are you going to do for me? I know you would do nothing. I am sorry, based on your track record, our life is going to get further difficult.
Government should pay us
If you were really honest, you should have paid every person some money for standing in line for increasing your revenue. It is your job to remove black money for the person who is making it, not mine. Why am I paying you taxes? Why should I stand in line, when you are having fun in Japan? Why should I stand in line, when you are forcing people to clap for you in rallies? Why should I stand in line, when your revenues are increasing and all I am getting is a lot of aggravation? You can fool gullible people, not me. I am not buying anything that you are selling. Please sell it to someone else. Please do something for me, then, I will help you. Why should I help you, when you are taking away the benefits that the government was earlier giving me? Why should I give you 50 days or even 5 minutes, when you don't care about me? Please don't fool me with your rhetoric. Give me a plan about what you are going to do with additional income. Please don't talk about terrorism. What are you going to do for me? If you answer me that, then talk to me. Before you do that, it is all empty rhetoric.
This is a letter from a citizen to his prime minister. I am not affiliated any political party. Any political comments will be deleted. If you disagree on principle, you are welcome to comment, but no politics, please.
See Questions On Quora