Arun Jaitley’s Facebook page receives more brickbats than bouquets

Social media is not quite an unmixed blessing, union ministers are discovering to their chagrin. Encouraged to be active on social media, most union ministers have both Facebook and Twitter presences. Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s Facebook page is liked by more than 2.8 million people. But following the Prime Minister’s announcement on November 8 to ban 86% of the currency notes in circulation, there has been a sharp increase in the number of critical comments posted on the page.

On December 12 the FM, for example, posted the innocuous message: ‘Greetings on the pious occasion of Milad-Un-Nabi’. The greetings evoked a sharp reaction from one Antrix Kumar, who responded by saying, “Amit Shah and Modi giving Gyan, not doing reality check. No ATM is working in Delhi NCR”. The message from Nitin Singh Chauhan was even more succinct. “Print the notes, Arun Jaitley,” it said simply.

His birthday greetings to Sharad Pawar evoked even more sharp reaction. While some objected to the FM greeting an allegedly corrupt and tainted politician and others made snide comments on Jaitley and Pawar’s ‘cricketing’ ties, Ajit Badhrani posted this comment : “All politicians have changed their Black Money—Govt is taking action on small fish and big fish are ‘Scott free’ (sic)”.

Ashok Gupta was even more acerbic. “Sharad Pawar and Praful Patel have no Black, concealed, looted money—they do not fund elections, buy candidates and have no money in tax havens”.

Even a congratulatory message to the Indian cricket team on a comprehensive Test series win against England had Jayant Banerji ranting. “People losing jobs, factories shut, exports down and here we are celebrating cricket win—come on, have a heart,” he fumed. Manoj Pillai was more direct. “People are running from pillar to post to get their hard-earned money back…you are playing fiddle while Rome is burning.”

When the page uploaded another video this month showing Jaitley explain Government strategy to move from high cash to low cash economy, several reactions were far from kind. “Teachers doing home tuition, rent from rooms, PG accommodation etc taking cash only…” pointed out Sanjay Choudhary while Jawahar Upanal wondered “How are VVIPs, ministers, IAS, bank officers and politicians getting money…”

Following BJP’s landslide win in the Chandigarh municipal election, Jaitley posted: “Chandigarh traditionally reflects the national mood”. Many were quick to correct him. While some warned that the ground reality was different in rural areas and he should not be complacent, others sarcastically asked him to wait till the Punjab election results are declared. Rajbir Singh summed up by posting, “No one is poor in Chandigarh. Average house costs five crore, one BHK Rs 50 lakhs…has 100% bank, Internet, electricity and 70 per cent shops have card swiping machines…means rich is happy with BJP. But what did BJP say? That rich are crying…”

On the same day the FM posted a video of his speech at Vigyan Bhavan on Accounting Reforms in Railways. But a large number of his fans seemed to have other things in their mind. One of them Sukhvinder responded by seeking the FM’s help in opening a bank account for himself. He has got into a government job in Punjab and had approached the State Bank of Patiala’s Amloh branch in Fatehgarh Sahib for opening a bank account. But although he had submitted the form a week ago, he writes, “they are not opening it and behaved with me as if I were a criminal”.

Ramawati Devi (68), a widow who is unable to walk, reported a similar problem. Her husband Sudama Pandey, who had retired from the Army, had died in late October. But despite approaching the SBI branch at Makhdumpur for a new account to receive Family Pension, the bank is too busy handling cash to oblige her.

Avinash Nadyala complains that although the Government had announced that no service charge would be charged on online transactions below ₹2,000, he had to pay ₹16.35 as service charge and ₹45.26 as VAT while Kapil Mehra laments that prices of ‘atta’ (flour) and refined oil had gone up by 10-20%.

As we get further away from the demonetisation announcement on November 8, the brickbats on Jaitley’s page only seem to grow. There is nothing on the page to suggest, though, that the FM has taken any notice of them.

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