Hey there, 

We’re back with another Parliament Defied story. This time it’s about the government’s deceit and half-truths, and how they tried dodging questions on the health of small businesses which employ more than 10 crore people in India. 

Remember demonetisation or notebandi, as everyone called it? How the prime minister had stunned everyone with his announcement of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes turning into “worthless pieces of paper”? 

This move had a serious impact on businesses, especially the small ones. Few months later GST, the new Goods and Services Tax, had delivered another blow to these businesses. Some survived, while others never really recovered. When asked in Parliament, the Modi government assured information on how the two controversial moves hurt small companies. Turns out, all they did was try to stall this.

The Reporters’ Collective investigation into the government’s assurance made in Parliament reveals that the Finance ministry misled, and even lied, to downplay the damage caused first by demonetisation and later, the GST implementation. The ministry claimed that it was still gathering information from the central bank, RBI, but in a bid to defend the government, RBI made statements contradictory to its own findings. Talk about mixed signals! To find out more about what went down, read Part 5 of our series here.

If you’ve missed out on our past stories, you can read them here.
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Best,
Furquan Ameen,
Editor