We voted BJP but do not take us for granted.

A Special Investigation Team, appointed by the Supreme Court, suggested that the Securities and Exchange Board of India should identify everyone who is investing in our stock markets through Participatory Notes. The Sensex fell by 551 points on this news and because of the fall in the Chinese stock market. The problem with P-notes, as they are called, is that funds buying stocks through this route are not obliged to reveal who their individual investors are. There are criminal gangs which will take foreign currency from Indians working abroad and pay a higher exchange rate in rupees to recipients in India. This is called the hawala system. It benefits users in that they get more money and beneficiaries do not have to pay any tax. Criminals use the dollars to buy goods, say gold, to smuggle into India. Criminals and those with black money can send money abroad through reverse hawala and invest anonymously into our stock market through P-notes, through tax havens abroad. Seeing the fall ministers rushed out to calm the markets by saying that they will not take any hasty actions. Why? Because foreign funds have invested Rs 2.7 trillion, out of a total of around Rs 24 trillion, through this route and if this is withdrawn the market and the rupee may fall. Surely, if the government wants to rule out money laundering and black money it should stand firm against foreign blackmail, but previously too the government panicked when foreign investors objected about Minimum Alternative Tax on investments. One answer is to exempt present investors in P-notes from exposure while making it mandatory for every future investor to be verified. Rules must be simply stated and clear. Isn't it strange that when the present and the 2 previous finance ministers are lawyers our laws have more loopholes than a sieve? This government argued in front of the Supreme Court that Indians do not have a right to privacy. The government also wants India to be a cashless society, apparently to get rid of black money. But using cards means that we lose the anonymity of cash transactions, which is dangerous. Every politician wants to have absolute power so they can remain in power forever. Privacy is the only defense we citizens have against repression. Kidnappers are already demanding payment in bitcoins. The government intends to amend the Whistleblower Act to make it mandatory for the name whistleblower to be disclosed. We have seen what happens to whistleblowers in the Vyapam scam. So no privacy for citizens or whistleblowers but money launderers can rest easy. The government wants to curtail powers of the Governor of the RBI by setting up a committee of civil servants, read boot-lickers, to set monetary policy. We voted for the BJP, but they should not take us for granted. We will not tolerate repression. A warning.