By D.N. Singh –
The other day, when I transferred a small sum of Rs.10,000 through the deposit machine at an SBI ATM centre, the slip showed a debit of Rs.25 from my savings account.
Not much seems to have change after demonetisation. Before it also, we were paying surcharges for deposits as well for withdrawals and under a tab on withdrawal limit. The SBI has meanwhile, as per the RBI guideline, issued a list of new ways to have access into borrowers’ details. Vigilantism and burden on the tax payer is all about the new ways of economic boost!
It is not about what the RBI thinks or the SBI implements, but the general feeling among the common men is not that upbeat now and a gradual fear looms large with a series of other such strictures in the offing. When Prime Minister Narendra Modi took office, the general euphoria was widely manifested, but after little over four years, there is a decline in the feel-good factor.
All that he had loudly announced or promised to bring about a change still appear remote. There is a gradual rise in the level of disillusionment.
Silence speaks louder than noise. So actions also can be seen as a stronger appraisal than the promises being a continual process. This may be one reason why two set of groups have stuck their necks out over the performance of the people at the centre. One group is die-hard loyalist of Modi as the Prime Minister. They religiously sees the glimpses of hope. And there is another motley group, which still believe that, if it is not he then who?
Secondly, politically the group that took a strong stand of disbelief against Modi now also continues to do so and by that they have made the way for a general dislike through any means available. But all that are not without any reason. Like people who voted for him had naturally high expectations, which have been eclipsed by few failures. The demonetisation announcement on the evening of November 8 two years back was a shocker for many but the expectations created by the NDA did not have desired results as regards the check on black money.
So that brought an end to the general euphoria and what goes on like the dynamic change of fuel prices or LPG and rapid fall of the value of rupee against dollar compels even his staunch supporters among the voters to wonder what more is going to happen in the days to come.
Even some tend to believe that the claim about transparency went into a rough weather after the Rafael row, and particularly after the spat between the two CBI top brasses, there is an animated suspension of disbelief. During the UPA era, people had seen Rajas and Kalmadis facing conviction and jailed. But now Nirav Modis or Vijay Mallyas or Chowksis are far from the clutches of the legal arms of India.
Some election results in the past had become a real dampener for the NDA. That means, it shows, to become a staunch loyalist is easy and then it becomes easier to turn detractors, which is often irreversible a trend. Despite all this, Modi can have more followers in 2019 than the total number of new detractors, but it cannot be a smooth sailing this time.
