Indian PM Under Pressure After Demonetization & GST Failures

Prime Minister Narendra Modi sent 1.2 billion people into shock on November 8, 2016 when his BJP Government announced a demonetization drive that was launched to eliminate black money and clean up corruption in the country.

The finance ministry blacklisted 1,000 and 5,000 rupee notes and sent the nation into chaos for over 2 months as there was a currency shortage and the government had not prepared well enough to replace the blacklisted notes with other denominations.

This was a bold move taken by PM Modi and his government but now that ten months have past, financial analysts and key ministers have called it a failure.

The demonetization drive had a negative impact on India’s growing economy and slowed down things considerably, which has caused the opposition to also launch a scathing attack on the Modi government.

Oneindia News

Former Union Minister Arun Shourie is the latest minister to criticize Modi for his demonetization drive which he labeled as the largest money laundering scheme in the country used for converting black money into white. Shourie said that Modi’s risk taking has caused a slowdown in job creation and turned the once thriving Indian economy into a sluggish market.

In a statement, Shourie said

This is a government by ‘ilhaam‘ (revelation). The Prime Minister has the ‘ilhaam‘ one night that demonetization should be done and he does it. In any case it was a bold step. I have to remind you suicide too is a bold step.

Shourie blacked up his claims by countering the BJP’s justification for the demonetization drive. The BJP has said that the two main reasons for demonetization was curbing the flow of black money and limiting the financial resources of terrorists who were suspected of using counterfeit 1,000 and 5,00 rupee notes to finance their terrorist campaigns.

Shourie said that the demonetization drive did not eliminate black money from India and terrorist attacks still continued. He also pointed out that other leaders like former finance minister M Chidambaram, Yashwant Sinha and a number of leading economists had also termed the demonetization drive a failure.

The BJP government also introduced a new goods and service tax (GST) in 2017 which was expected to simplify the tax system in the country. The opposite happened as small and medium businesses in the country have continued to suffer along with the common man as GST was implemented poorly and has once again caused hardship for the majority of Indians.

Charlie Harrison

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