Interestingly, Naidu discussed with NITI Aayog vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya the topic at Amaravati on Tuesday evening, hours before the PM made the dramatic announcement on TV at night. Naidu mentioned to Dr Panagariya that he had written a letter to the PM on 11 October, seeking the withdrawal of the high denomination notes to curb black money. Sources close to the AP CM told The Sunday Guardian that Naidu had definitely played a role in the decision to scrap Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.
“People are talking about Anil Bokil, the Pune-based crusader against black money and whose Artha Kranti Sansthan made this drastic proposal to the PM to cancel big denomination notes, but the TDP president is the political figure who pursued the idea,” said a Cabinet rank adviser in the AP government, preferring not to be quoted. This adviser told this newspaper that the PM had given a patient hearing to Bokil in July this year only after Naidu repeatedly told the former that the idea was worth pursuing to check black money.
But Bokil is the one who sold the idea to Naidu almost four years ago. Bokil, who held a seminar on Artha Kranti in Ramoji Film City in Hyderabad on 2 December 2012, vigorously championed the cause of abolition of big currency notes from the market. Naidu’s TDP think tank was present at the seminar in full strength. Of course, Bokil’s proposals were even radical. He has been demanding that there was no need for any big notes, including Rs 100. In his view, the economy will smoothly run with notes of Rs 50 and lesser denominations and coins. Even the SIT (special investigation team) on black money headed by retired Supreme Court judge M.B. Shah, too, was in favour of abolition of big notes.
Naidu pressed for the abolition of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 as recently as recently as 28 October when Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley came to Amaravati to lay the foundation stone for the administrative complex of new AP capital. Jaitley publicly acknowledged that Naidu had been actively behind the demand to pull out big notes from circulation. Andhra Pradesh State Planning Board vice-chairman C. Kutumba Rao said that Naidu had done extensive work before demanding the cancellation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.
Even on Thursday, Naidu felt that there was no need for a higher denomination like Rs 2,000 notes, and replacement of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes. But should the Centre decide to introduce them for the sake of public convenience, their circulation can be restricted and smaller notes should be brought in circulation.
But Naidu’s clamour for cancellation of big notes is seen in AP politics as an attack against his political rival, YSR Congress leader Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy. Jagan, now facing several illegal assets cases filed by the CBI, is often accused of making at least Rs 50,000 crore worth of wealth when his late father Rajasekhara Reddy was CM.
Naidu had alleged that the distribution of notes in elections has become easier with the free availability of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000. According to them, although the money spent by political parties in the 2014 elections was offiially said to be about Rs 8,000 crore, it was actually around Rs 50,000 crore. Interestingly, the PM’s decision to do away with Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes was welcomed by the YSR Congress. “We welcome the decision to ban big notes, but we only request the Centre to see that ordinary people are not put to hardship,” YSR Congress senior leader Botsa Satyanarayana told this newspaper on phone. Even Telangana CM K. Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) welcomed the PM’s move against black money. His son and IT minister K.T. Rama Rao congratulated PM Modi for the bold strike against black money.