Prime Minister Narendra Mondi, in his Independence Day address to the nation from the ramparts of Red Fort on August 15, 2017, announced 56 lakh new tax payers were added between April 1- August 5, 2017; whereas Finance Minister Arun Jaitly stated on May 17, 2017 that the number of new tax payers was 91 lakh post-demonetisation.

According to the Economic Survey 2016-17, number of new tax payers was 5.4 lakh, said Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian on August 11, 2017. In yet another information, the Upper House of Parliament, Rajya Sabha (Council of States) was informed in a written reply on August 2, 2017 that number of new tax payers was 33 lakh post-demonetisation.

Similarly, the Prime Minister gave a different information on recovery of black money following demonetisation, which is far from the ground reality. It is learnt officially, the Government did not allow tabling of a Parliamentary Committee Report on Demonetisation, already finalized before the commencement of the Monsoon Session of Parliament, under a well thought out design to defer adverse publicity.

It appears the conflicting information regarding new tax payers is a part of bundle of lies, hypes, fudging of data, political rhetorics, known in common parlance as jumla bazi for which the NDA Government and its Sangh pariwar are notorious in public perception. All promises made by Bhartya Janata Party (BJP) during the General Elections 2014 and the NDA Government there after have come a cropper. People on the ground are disillusioned with price rise, jobless growth, rising social tensions, intolerance, fear and insecurity. Government has been thriving on rousing majoritarian sentiments. An undeclared emergency like situation is gripping the nation!