Congrajulate Modi for economic policy?

I agree that almost no planning was done. Will go through the articles.

AFAIK BJP have not traditionally had their own economic policy and have just continued on a track of policy defined by the previous government. I don't think you can really congratulate someone for that.

Yes, then you must congratulate no leader on this world then, as no ideas are original. Why Modi has gained respect with youth is, he was able to take stubborn decisions like Indra Gandhi.

That shows the sad state our youth, refusing to think, refusing to act and waiting for a messiah to save them. Taking stubborn decisions on its own is no merit, stupid people can be stubborn too. Waiting for a messiah to save them is easier, it needs no thinking, no action on their part, just needs to pray and naively believe the messiah has arrived when someone claims that status. Do you see the acceptance of many godmen/babas as good sign too? They also claim their God status and large number of people believe them? Is blind acceptance of large number of people a criteria to evaluate the worthiness of a person?

J Devika wrote this beautifully, though in an article about a short film, but covers the young men you describe nicely, who are mesmerised by the courage of Mr Modi.

" I met her, a young woman professional working at Technopark, Thiruvananthapuram – where else, in these days, but in the queue in front of an ATM . In response to my grumbling, she told me that she had never experienced any kind of power in her whole life. She had not even been affected by demonetisation much, she insisted. ‘True, I couldn’t pay the dhobi and the ironing-man, but those were minor inconveniences,’ she quipped cheerily, quite convinced, of course, that the predicament of these two people, definitely as much professionals’ as her, was none of her concern. Indeed, her constant effort was to cheer people in the queue with her don’t-worry-be-happy body-language with which she slipped and slid between acting and sounding like a grown woman and chirping and giggling like a teenager or child. She was attracted to the BJP, she said, because she needed some ‘philosophy’ in her life, to balance the heavy workload she carried in her workplace. As far I could see, her life was such that the philosophy-lesson she would find useful could have been obtained from something as commonplace as a treadmill – start slow, peak up, take regular dips, continue for a spell sufficiently long, stretch after the workout. In other words, her life seemed to be just one long workout, with no indication of when it would end or yield result. But just the feeling that she was on her way was enough to make her cheery to the point of being silly.

That, typically, is the attitude of precisely people who have been so overwhelmed by power, those who never have had a chance to see a sliver if light through a tiny chink even."
https://kafila.online/2016/12/05/memories-of-a-machine-or-the-machine-of-memory/

Yeah, I agree, we should not congratulate these "leaders" for they don't really lead, they are following. Following corporate lobbyists, following free trade economics of the previous regime, following rules laid out at the WTO, following what the World Bank say they have to do because of the money they borrowed.

As for Indira Ghandi, you mean stubborn decisions like using sikh religious extremists as your attack dogs and then dumping them? Straight out of the US / Afghani playbook.

I think what is needed is more voice to more people and less celebrity leader worship.

@karthikeyanak Agree on pushing hard for the land and property reforms but be wary of these reforms, they may lead to headlines like "2% of rich foreigners own 90% of Indian Property" a bit like:
https://www.ft.com/content/605cdea2-fb69-11e2-a641-00144feabdc0

I don't say foreigners, but I say 2% of Indians, and ofcourse they must be rich. The two things that led to real estate bubble were black money and NRI investment. This demonetization, economist say will lead to 30% in real estate price reduction. Thats about saving 6years of a mans life if he would take mortgage for 20 years.

If eliminating black money is true interest, gold and land must be touched. It won't eradicate all black money people, but will hit some of them.

When society becomes cashless, we can use big data to find culprits (only government will have sufficient data to do that) . If India adopts bitcoin, then all will know what goes where and we can trace things out.

When society becomes cashless, we can use big data to find culprits (only government will have sufficient data to do that) . If India adopts bitcoin, then all will know what goes where and we can trace things out.

Do you think we are not able to catch many criminals because we don't know about them? Many in the government or the ruling establishment, be it ministers, representatives or others close to them have criminal cases against them. Why do you think we are not able to catch them? How about Vijay Mallya? Why is he not in jail? Is it because we don't know he is not paying back the loans?

when i heard about the news of demonetization for the first time i actually supported it. but later on seeing how it affected people and questioning how effective it really is made me change my mind. it may be a decision with good intention, but of course a bad implementation.

if this article is reliable it clearly explains how ineffective the demonetization policy is.

We are then left with about Rs 58,200 crore as the net gain for the government – not even a third of the original expectation.

It is interesting to note that Rs 58,200 crore will be only twice as large as the money collected through the earlier voluntary disclosure scheme for black money that closed on September 30 this year and raised Rs 29,000 crore – and this was an exercise that did not involve bringing the entire economy to a near- standstill.

So far, we have come to two important realizations: (a) Notebandi is now not a war on corruption, but is rather a welcome-arch for black money holders to convert their cash stash into legally white money; and (b) the bonanza that many saw on November 8 is likely to remain a mirage.

government made people all over the nation suffer for these? what about the people who lost their lives?

http://www.huffingtonpost.in/2016/11/15/33-demonetisation-deaths-in-7-days-hospital-casualties-suicide/

http://mashable.com/2016/11/16/india-people-dying-demonetization/

@karthikeyanak you still think we should congratulate modi?

Yup, black money is more dangerous to us than terrorism. Perhaps the demonetization has failed, but I wish government should cast more nets and trouble people who has illegal wealth.

@karthikeyanak and how about this http://indianexpress.com/article/explained/demonetisation-internet-banking-digital-payments-cashless-transactions-economy-4415810/ ? It would be even worse than China or Iran if we were cashless and depend on the internet even for buying essential stuff. Shut down the internet, shut down the mobile networks and you are royally screwed. Do you trust this govt to not use that much power? Have you not learned anything from history?

I think demonetization as a concept is a nice idea in theory but one can argue that it is very much premature to congratulate Modi on his scheme.

1. Effect on non documented Citizens

I was on the ground the day it was announced. Visiting my brother in a remote place called Bijapur. Since i was traveling to a remote location, i tend to keep cash with me and so i had a few 500/1000 notes with me for emergencies. I decided to go to the bank and try and get some money for travelling back to Bangalore as ATMs were closed. When i was standing in line, i saw few people talking with security guard of the bank. After they left i asked the guard what the people wanted, he said that each bank was told to only handle people who have accounts in their bank and that those people were gypsies or travelling people. They don't have accounts in any bank as they keep travelling around India doing work like construction work etc. They have no permanent address, no proper education. For all effects and purposes they arent even legal citizens as they don't have a voters card (maybe some have an Aadhar card but also rare). These people's entire life saving have been wiped by demonetization. Do we just stand by and ignore this as "collateral damage"?

1. Lok Sabha Drama

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-lok-sabha-again-witnesses-disruptions-over-demonetization-2281244
Maybe RBI has authority to implement such a scheme, but the Lok Sabha represents (however grudgingly) the voice of the people. It is where we should be able to pass a law requiring banks to keep enough cash in stock in the ATMs, keep staff overtime,

force private hospitals to allow for deferred payment in these times.

1. No Solution for a Post Demonetization World

Really what is the solution? I dont use Auto's anymore because my 100s are too valuable. Uber cars seem more convenient as they have direct pay from my credit card. I have tea only when i have a few coins in my pocket, and i buy things only where i can swipe my card. What is the solution though? I would argue against Bitcoin and any similar cryptocurrency for the very obvious reasons that @praveenarimbrathod has mentioned.

How do we pay the chaiwalla without breaking the precious 100Rs note?

Demonetization has happened. We need to look forward and figure out a solution to help the bottom of the pyramid as they are the most affected by this.

Our (SWARAJ INDIA - a political party, in the process of getting registered with ECI) stand on the issue: We demand that along with the demonetization move, the Government should announce the following measures:

1. A robust system to identify and confiscate the black money that is stashed in the form of benami properties, shares and gold.

2. A ban on “tax havens” like Mauritius and P-Notes that are used to convert black money into white money.

3. For stopping use of black money in politics, political parties should be brought under ambit of RTI; BJP and all political parties should be made to disclose all details of cash donations; and Congress and BJP should be penalized for accepting foreign donations.

4. In the current session of Parliament, the conspiracy to make the anti-corruption laws ineffective should be stopped by consensus of all political parties.

5. For independent inquiry into corruption in high offices, appointment to the posts of Lokpal, which has remained vacant for past two and half years, should be done immediately.

6. All black money recovered from the demonetisation exercise should be utilized for social security expenditure for creating assured income for farmers and unorganized labour.

https://www.swarajabhiyan.org/content/news/382

Thanks for sharing this. I think we, as Indian Pirates, should endorse these demands.

Common that name sucks, why not Pirate party? Its so cool. We were having the name as Pirate party, whats that Swaraj Pary, why name change now? And it doesn't spell good :(

We did not change our name. Swaraj India is a new party formed by Prashant Bhushan, Yogendra Yadav etc. @manoharelavarthi is also a member of Swaraj India (Earlier known as Swaraj Abhiyan). He just shared their statement on this issue. I thought the demands were good, so proposed we endorse them. Since it was originally drafted by them I added a credit for them at the end.

As for the name Pirate Party of India, we could not sustain that because many pushed us to register immediately, in that furor, many initial members/associate members did not apply to be a permanent member, so that structure collapsed. We tried a second time as Pirate Movement of India as we did not want to call ourself as a party and repeat the same mistake. But that also failed to sustain as many initial members/associate members did not apply to be a permanent member. Indian Pirates is third experiment and this time we have 8 permanent members and it can sustain now.

BJP, Congress and most of the regional parties have no interest in getting rid of BLACK MONEY. These parties and their funders are the main BLACK MONEY holders.

My opinion is changing a bit, though it may be a good idea, implementation seems to be crap. I have run out of money and don't know what to do. So does many people.

I feel Modi must have planned properly but he hasn't, he has failed miserably this time https://youtu.be/YqwVOWYJSxw

Yes but it should be in a structured manner. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filibuster.
Whats happening in Lok Sabha the last week is just chaos.

It's a filibuster because the ruling party refuses to provide counter arguments and opposition wants a discussion on the issue.

I did not understand how point 4 is against dissent. Can you elaborate?

"the conspiracy to make the anti-corruption laws ineffective"

This could very well be a real concern and not a mere conspiracy. The implementation of the demonetisation has been abysmal and the state hasnt answered to the representatives of the people. The point mentions consensus by all political parties but how can this happen if BJP refuses to do so?

I understand the demand cannot be realized without BJP joining, that is a question of effectiveness, how is it stopping dissent? Anyway all these demands need support from BJP, because they are the ruling party, so should we stop demanding anything at all?

My major issue was with the conspiracy part and therefore the branding of the opposition as purely evil. I don't have a problem with co-operation between all parties nor do I suggest we stop demanding things. The issue is who must compromise and why? Ideally all parties and not just one side, which would include the BJP.

AIB at its best as always https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqwVOWYJSxw

@ambadyanands can you add this statement on our website? Once we post it on the website, we can share the link from our social media accounts and spread it widely.

statement added to the website: http://pirates.org.in/statements/blackmoney

I think its better to keep recent statements at the top. Also it would be good to highlight the most recent statement on the top of the page( Above "Join Indian Pirates...").

recent statement added to the top of the homepage. statement shared on diaspora as well: https://diasp.in/posts/441728

These are good generic anti-corruption demands.

The demonetisation itself is a devastating strike on India's economy. The ideal action here should have been not doing it and post that, ideal action all through should have been reversing it. We have enough of the old notes and no way to print near enough of the new ones for a few months at least.

It was a garbage plan and hideously implemented. Redistributing wealth will not do much when the move itself has stripped the poor of a lot of wealth by state decree. The losses in jobs and small business incomes are not going to be recovered easily. How much money will be given as "handouts"?

The proposal misses the main demand. Modi, Jaitley and Urjit Patel must resign.

Since we already closed this proposal and it is a generic demand for tackling black money. You can propose another statement with demands you found missing in the current statement.

@vidyut there is a new discussion on specific response to demonitization here https://codema.in/d/lxYjAupN/discussion-indian-pirate-demands-on-demonetization join there and propose actions we missed in the last statement.

Now we should update our social media accounts.

Interesting rant by Nikhil Pahwa http://www.medianama.com/2016/12/223-year-end-rant-2016-technology-has-never-been-this-political-in-india/

finished the year with a bang!

CBI should probe source of new currency notes seized by IT: Bank union https://in.news.yahoo.com/cbi-probe-source-currency-notes-seized-bank-union-150804799.html

There is plenty of 2000 rupee notes available to black money holders, only common people are suffering. There is no effort from the government to catch the criminals in the banking system. It only shows they have put enough loop holes for the big black money holders. But most people won't read the fine print or media will not ask these questions. So govt will get benefit of the move from large number of population who are willing to "sacrifice" for the country and are naive to trust the government.