How should the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, handle opposition leaders like P. Chidambaram, who responded to his 'dimagi naxal' remark by saying "I am proud to be a dimagi naxal"?
PM Modi didn’t mentioned any individual names when he talked about ‘dimagi naxals’ on 15 August 2026. If ex-UPA minister P Chidambaram makes self-confession that he is a ‘dimagi naxal’ there is nothing PM Modi can do about it.
In a speech in the Rajya Sabha on 9 February 2017 congress leader Harvard educated P Chidambaram mocked the government's push for digital payments and 'transparency' in payment transactions and tore into the Union Budget and the decision to demonetise ₹500 and ₹1000 notes. He made a long lecture on how poor people with lack of technology/internet etc. will conduct digital payment?
Many years later, India is now world leader in digital payment transactions and way ahead of China and USA. Many countries are accepting India’s UPI gateway system which has made USA scared. Visa and MarterCard companies from USA virtually shut shop from India and now lobbying with USA govt. to restrict UPI gateway payments.
Global credit card market leader Mastercard complained to the Office of the United States Trade Representative that Indian government associated the use of RuPay cards with nationalism, claiming it serves as kind of national service. Mastercard complained that the Indian government had adopted a series of protectionist measures to the detriment of global companies. Why are global leaders with market dominance, technological superiority and decades of experience are scared of a six-year-old RuPay credit card project?
Slowly and steadily, RuPay card has been expanding in the Indian market, riding on the back of the government. Thanks to PM Modi's policy of financial inclusion, RuPay has made quick inroads into the hinterland. At the Delhi Economics Conclave in 2015, Modi had spoken about emergence of RuPay cards as an alternative to the otherwise duopolistic industry dominated by Visa and Mastercard. “Thanks to RuPay cards, we introduced healthy competition in the debit and credit card space traditionally dominated by a few international players,” he had said. India’s total debit-card volume is 925 million (in 2015), according to Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data. RuPay claims to power over 500 million cards issued by nearly 1,100 banks — giving it more than 50% share in the country’s debit-card market by volume, beating the much older duo of Visa and Mastercard. In 2013, RuPay's market share was just 0.6 per cent.
During the UPA era In 2009, the RBI had asked the Indian Banks Association to launch a not-for-profit company and design a rival card, then tentatively called India Card, that met the requirements of the domestic banks. The card was launched in 2012. A big boost for RuPay came when the government prescribed the issuance of RuPay cards to every account holder who opened the account under the Prime Minister Jan Dhan Yojana launched in 2014. So, the RuPay card concept was born during USA era, just like GST, but implemented during Modi era. Despite this failure of UPA era Harvard educated ministers, they try to criticise PM Modi as uneducated ‘tea seller’!
RuPay card usage at point-of-sales devices has jumped 135% to 459 million transactions in financial year 2017-18 as against 195 million previous year. The number of RuPay cards in circulation also grew, having reached 494 million in financial year 2018 up 35% against 365 million in the previous year. RuPay card usage at ecommerce websites jumped 137% to reach 208 million transactions in financial year 2018 against just 87.5 million in 2017. In terms of value of payments, the transactions stood at Rs 16,600 crore against Rs 5,934 crore the year before, a jump of 180%.
PM Modi's drive for a less-cash economy in the wake of demonetisation has promoted RuPay card in the interiors of the country where paying with a card was a big novelty just five years ago. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that RuPay's total transactions had increased to Rs. 8,430 crore ($1.16 billion) as of September 2018 from Rs. 1100 crore before demonetisation. Consistent government efforts through banks and special offers will further expand the reach of RuPay. For example, in August the GST Council allowed incentivising digital payments through Rupay card by way of cashbacks. Customers making payments using Rupay card or BHIM UPI will get a cashback of 20 per cent of the total GST amount, subject to a maximum of Rs 100. However, the biggest weapon that helped RuPay conquer a big chunk of the market was its flat fee. For every RuPay-based transaction, NPCI charges a flat 60 paise for acquiring and 30 paise for issuing. This is a tiny fraction of Visa and Mastercard’s merchant-discount rate, which is calculated as a percentage of the actual transaction amount.
Both RuPay card and smartphone based online payment tools like PayTM is a big success for India’s digital revolution, which Chidambaram mocked in Parliament say impossible. PM Modi made it possible and it is now best in the world. PM Modi also responded to Chidambaram’s scepticism on digital payment with statement ‘hard work is more important than Harvard’.
In 10 years UPI growth was 13000 times in volume and 4000 times in value terms
After 10 years of Modi govt. rule, Chidambaram admitted that people are much resonating with the policies of Right Wing. Chidambaram said to media that electorate has moved to the right. This time Chidambaram seems to be right. This is a moral victory for BJP and loss for congress and leftist, communist and librandµ urban naxals. This also means Modi/BJP govt will continue to run the country in future even if leftist states like Keralam, TN etc. do not vote for BJP/NDA. In a major boost to BJP, Bengal which was a communist state for 34 long years, voted BJP to power in 2026.
The Harvard educated Chidambaram failed to deliver digital payment system and GST rollout which was done by Arun Jaitley during Modi 1.0 government
Realising the country drifting towards right-wing politics where leftists are getting increasingly marginalised, Chidambaram called himself ‘dimagi naxal’. With this statement Chidambaram indicated what most people in India are realising – that congress is now a Marxist-Islamist party which can be called as Muslim League 2.0.
Modi government’s digital payment success transformed Harvard educated Chidambaram to dimagi naxal
Picture source: Google / Respective rightful owner
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