What is Modi government doing!
TWO news items came from the direction of India in quick succession to make our jaws fall. Incredibly unbelievable! Can any government having an iota of compassion do this to its own people, and in the process embarrass some of us here in Bangladesh?
First, the attack was directed at some 'poor' Indians who kept their hard earned black money in foreign banks; paltry amounts of thousands of crores of rupees. Peanuts, really.
Now, we fail to understand why in such small matters the Indian government or the Supreme Court should get involved. Don't they have better things to do? Like fending off the Pakistanis at the border? And why should the colour of money bother anyone so much? What difference does black or white make? It could be yellow, so? Michael Jackson had sung a song long ago about being black or white, didn't he?
We have come to know from the Indian news that in the first phase only some small-fry, an insignificant 627 of them, have been identified and the bigger fish are yet to be nabbed. But the investigating committee has vowed that all will soon face the music, not foreign, but deshi. Now, don't people in India have the right to amass wealth and keep them somewhere safe so that CBI or the tax guys cannot touch them? Don't those government officials keep their monthly salary safe in a bank? Does anyone raise any hullabaloo about that?
Mr. Modi once again harped on the issue of bringing back all black money from abroad. He said that the poor people of India were the actual owners of this money! Blistering Barnacles! If this happens then our Indian friends will have to give up all karwabar and dhanda, and go and live in Kashi and Goya as hermits!
Why should that embarrass us here? Good question. You see, in this age of super Internet connectivity, news travel faster than before and hit the headlines of all the newspapers in the country. And it hit some of us below the belt. Only some weeks back people were talking about Bangladeshis keeping dollars and pounds in foreign banks. It was so annoying to us. It was being said that the Bangladesh government would have the stashed away money brought back to the country. How preposterous!
After this Indian story, we are now really worried about our very own black money in foreign banks. What is going to happen now? Will Bangladesh government get inspired by the Indian move and start asking embarrassing questions? Who knows whether NBR or ACC have already read the news item?
Well, we hope good sense would prevail and the watchdogs would look the other way and allow us to amass our money, whether white, black, yellow or brown!
The other news items that also came as a shocker is the Indian government's decision not to allow government officials to travel in the first class by air and organise government programmes in 5-star hotels! All forms of foreign tours in the name of attending conferences, discussion meetings, exhibitions etc., have been discouraged. The ban on purchasing new vehicles for government offices and officials will continue. It has also instructed all government offices to cut unplanned expenditure by 10%. The Modi government has further strongly discouraged creation of new government posts. Posts which are lying vacant for the last one year or more; there is no need to fill them up unless very urgently required.
We believe some officials from the Modi government should come and stay with us in Bangladesh and watch how some of our ministries and government departments are run by 'highly patriotic' people. They will learn how “Experience Gathering” foreign tours for engineers, accountants, surveyors and their office peons are planned before constructing toilets in some government quarters.
Once these Indian officials go back they will be able to convince Mr. Modi to allow such experience gathering tours all over Europe to study the evolution of toilets there. And if our government officials and their subordinates cannot purchase luxurious vehicles every two years how will they visit their ancestral homes to meet the 'people'? After all interacting with the people is the most important thing in a People's Republic, isn't it?
So, you see, we are quite perturbed at the doings of Mr. Modi as somehow they impact our life here in Bangladesh. We are quite worried now about what he would do next.
The writer is Special Supplements Editor, The Daily Star.
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