---- In a surprising move, journalists from The Economist magazine, BBC, Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Indian media organizations like Firstpost were kept out of December 8, 2016 press conference of Reserve bank of India (RBI) by its Governor Urjit Patel. Though the Economist magazine's Mumbai correspondent Stanley Pignal reportedly said the official reason given by RBI's spokeswoman was that they "can't accommodate all media anymore" and that it had nothing to do with the critical coverage of demonetization by the magazine.
But anybody who knows how demonetization has flopped and how it has caused grave & gross harassment and torture (including ~ 100 deaths) of innocent 99 % of ~ 1.3 Billion people of India and how Government of India (GOI) led by PM Modi has succeeded in ensuring the silence of political parties, political commentators, academicians, Indian media etc and even of Member of Parliament (MPs) about illegality of this draconian demonetization, GOI knows and fears that it will bring Modi government down if foreign media high lights the illegality of this demonetization (in addition to it being neither intelligent nor humane as per Nobel laureate economist Amartya Sen too).
Moreover if this trend of RBI (which can be only due to pressure of GOI on RBI) continues where the RBI has banned a section of criticizing media from its press conferences, then it is merely a matter of time that the other government agencies will follow the suit. Hence this is not a one-off incident and if not reversed then the future of India (the largest and only secular democracy in this highly volatile region) would be bleak.
Such an open loot and legalized plunder through demonetization (as per former Prime Minister and former RBI governor Manmohan Singh too) has been possible due to simple reason that world leaders (including so-called leader of free World the US Presidents Obama & Trump) are silent on this all pervasive persecution of Indians by constitutional and other authorities of India. These World leaders are naively forgetting that the pampering and protecting the criminal constitutional & other authorities of India at the cost of innocent 99 % of ~ 1.3 Billion people of democratic India will not serve the interest of their country in the long run.
In such a dismal and hopeless situation for Indians, the foreign media can help the beleaguered Indians if foreign media high lights the illegality of this draconian demonetization as given below:-
(1)- ID was illegally demanded from the bearer of the notes while replacing old notes with new notes despite mention on the notes by RBI Governor that ‘I promise to pay to the bearer’ of Rs 500 & 1,000 notes, which were demonetized.
(2)- The GOI and its political and other defenders are spreading a canard that under Section 26 (2) of Reserve Bank of India Act this demonetization and after that whatever GOI & RBI have been doing is legal, but in reality& in law it is wrong. The Section 26 (2) of RBI Act reads as – “On recommendation of the Central Board the [Central Government] may, by notification in the Gazette of India, declare that, with effect from such date as may be specified in the notification, any series of bank notes of any denomination shall cease to be legal tender [save at such office or agency of the Bank and to such extent as may be specified in the notification]”.
(3)- In Section 26 (2) of RBI Act - “and to such extent as may be specified in the notification” - is most important. If RBI or its office or agency (like Post Office and Banks) refuse to exchange the old notes with new notes by saying that there is no currency available (as per extent or limit say Rs 2,000 or 4,000 per day etc specified in the notification) then Court should have declared RBI (through its office or agency) as Bankrupt (because it is unable to repay outstanding debts) and should have further declared such ‘Immediate-cutoff-demonetization’ illegal.
[Because this extent, as specified in the notification, when un-fulfilled (that too and especially regarding currency) would violate constitutional fundamental right of life & liberty of the people under Article 21 and also the constitutional right to property under Article 300A which says no person shall be deprived of his property (currency etc) save by authority of law].
(4)- The observation on November, 18 by Supreme Court of India - that if situation (about availability of currency at Post offices and Banks) does not improve then there may be riots - is precisely the situation where Court should have declare RBI bankrupt and this demonetization [where Rs 500 and 1,000 notes were cutoff (denied as legal tender) at the notice of 4 hours in the night], illegal. For this dereliction by Supreme Court of India (SCI) it should have been impeached by Parliament under Article 124 (4) of the Constitution.
(5)- If any driver kills some body by car / truck due to negligent driving or an organizer of public event neglects security precautions with the result people die in fire accident then such negligent driver and organizer etc are prosecuted and punished under Section 304 A of IPC. Therefore Government of India (GOI) led by PM Modi (including its Cabinet) and RBI officials are legally expected to be prosecuted under Section 304 A, 34, 120 (B) of Indian Penal Code (IPC) for causing death by negligence (of not making adequate preparation for replacing old notes with new notes promptly and due to their this negligence ~ 100 people have died and practically entire India is suffering).
(6)- There is one more constitutional violation has been done by President and Prime Minister. India has Cabinet system of governance where Cabinet approval of major decisions is to be taken pre-facto. But Finance Minister Arun Jaitley (during TV interview) told that he also knew little bit about demonetization. Moreover this week in an interview to a TV Channel Finance Minister of Bengal Amit Mitra said that a senior Cabinet Minister told him (when Mitra was in Delhi for a meeting) that he and other Cabinet Ministers knew about demonetization only through TV address of PM Modi when PM MOdi announced on November 8, 2016 about demonetization.
(7)- President Pranab Mukherjee (who was also Finance Minister of India hence knows the devastating implications of such sudden banning of 86 % of currency) is legally expected to know about such non-approval of cabinet about de-monetization and was expected to take appropriate action under Article 78 of the Constitution to stop such illegal demonetization . But he failed to do so which has put entire India in such agony and for which President should have been impeached by Parliament under Article 56 (1) (b) of the Constitution.
(8)- On November 28, 2016 Deputy Leader of Upper House of Parliament (Rajyasabha) Anand Sharma (of Congress party) raised ‘Point-of-order’ saying that Government of India is carrying out demonetization since November 8, 2016 illegally / unconstitutionally because it is violating Article 21 and 300 A of the Constitution. There is on more important legal point which was raised on November, 28 by Leader of Opposition Gulam Nabi Azad (of Congress party) that Cabinet (including Finance Minister) was not kept in the loop by PM Modi in demonetization process with the result people are dying and suffering . But these leaders and other MPs in Parliament have still not pressed the point of order about Article 21, 300 A and 78 of the Constitution and Section 26 (2) of RBI Act and Section 304 A, 34, 120 (B) of IPC.
Therefore if foreign media (debarred by RBI) & others can enlighten the world about illegality & inhumanity of demonetization [by insisting on the need to bring constitutional and other authorities (namely President, Prime Minister and his cabinet Supreme Court Judges, RBI officials) to justice {under Article 21, 300 A, 78, 56 (1) (b), 124 (4) of The Constitution and section 26 (2) of RBI Act and section 304 A, 34 and 120 (B) of IPC} so that nobody can dare to kill and harass the Indians in this and similar manner in future], then innocent 99 % of ~ 1.3 Billion beleaguered people of India will always be grateful to such friendly foreign media.
Regards
Hem Raj Jain
(Author of ‘Betrayal of Americanism’)
Bengaluru, India