Alok Datar

[Amit Malviya @amitmalviya]

Five “rebuttals”, five evasions. Jairam Ramesh has merely repackaged his original canards.

1. Merchant or customer? Jairam deliberately hides the exemptions.

The Finance Minister stated the legal fact: MDR is charged to the merchant, not the customer. Jairam responds with speculation about indirect price effects. That does not disprove her.

More importantly, over 95% of UPI merchant transactions are below ₹2,000 and would remain exempt under the proposal being considered.

So there are two proposed safeguards that Jairam conveniently conceals:

- Transaction threshold: Payments up to ₹2,000 would remain exempt.
- Merchant threshold: Small merchants would remain exempt.

He is using a proposal that could potentially cover barely 4% of merchant transactions to frighten 100% of UPI users. That is deliberate political misinformation, not concern for small businesses.

2. Who should fund UPI?

A “public digital good” does not mean costless infrastructure. Banks and payment companies pay for servers, settlement, fraud prevention, and cybersecurity.

The RBI’s ₹2.86 lakh crore surplus was a one-time annual transfer, not an inexhaustible pot of free money. Jairam’s solution is that taxpayers should permanently subsidise high-value payments to large retailers—including transactions processed by Google Pay and Walmart-owned PhonePe, whose dominance he simultaneously complains about. Spectacularly self-contradictory.

3. Has MDR been imposed?

No. Jairam admits that the Steering Committee has not taken any decision and then declares future customer charges “inevitable”. That is fearmongering, not scrutiny.

The Bill creates room for a calibrated policy and empowers the Government to preserve specified transactions as free through a legally binding notification. “No proposal” in 2025 meant there was no proposal then; it was not a promise to freeze payment policy for eternity.

4. Jairam’s Trump conspiracy theory

Mastercard complained to the U.S. Government in 2018, and Visa followed in 2021. India responded by expanding RuPay and UPI domestically and internationally. India’s own payments industry sought reconsideration of zero MDR in January 2022, years before the 2026 USTR report.

His Brazil comparison is even more embarrassing. Brazil already permits financial institutions to charge businesses for Pix transactions from the very first transaction.

An MDR on UPI would finance the UPI ecosystem, not Visa or Mastercard. Making India’s payment infrastructure financially sustainable strengthens it; it does not surrender it.

5. Parliament was “not allowed” to discuss it?

The Bill was introduced on August 4 and passed by the Lok Sabha on August 6, not “within minutes of introduction”. The Opposition disrupted proceedings and prevented discussion. It cannot paralyse the House and then pose as the victim of insufficient debate.

Jairam’s position ultimately boils down to a demand for permanent public subsidies for large merchants, wrapped in a fabricated Trump conspiracy. It is economically incoherent, factually dishonest, and politically desperate.

[Narendra Modi @narendramodi]

Tomorrow, 7th August is National Handloom Day. Let’s make India’s handloom diversity popular.

Share your videos with your favourite handloom products, including GRWM videos on social media.

Don’t forget to use #NationalHandloomDay.

[The Choker Civilisation @brickandmorta11]

How many people here know that before 2014, railways had 8,300 unmanned level crossings where over 200 deaths occurred every year. The Modi government eliminated all 8,300 crossings by January 2019, bringing level crossing accidents down from 45% of all train accidents to just 3%. All these facts seem alien because our country has changed beyond imagination.

[Chocolate Minister of GJ🌟 @StarryCrusader9]

Development in China : Woww sarrrrr best station sarrrrr china living in future sarrrrrrrr supa powa sarrrrrr

Development in India : Modi selling country sarrrrrrr Adani sarrrrrrr Ambani sarrrrrrr ped kaat rhe hain sarrrrr pahad kaat rhe hain sarrrrr

[The Indian Matrix @indianmatrix]

How much of India's infrastructure was built after 2014?

• 100% of Dedicated Freight Corridors
• 98% of Solar Capacity
• 85% of the Expressway Network
• 79% of Tap Water Access
• 75% of Metro Rail
• 71% of Port Capacity
• 69% of Railway Electrification
• 60% of 4-Lane National Highways

Infrastructure is built over decades.
But some decades build more than others.

[Alok Datar @AlokDatar]

@Malay4Product True but our goals should be based against our reality not theirs. How does comparing against China's development model ever benefit us. We cannot follow their model, nor would we want to. In a democracy as messy as ours, these numbers are impressive.

[Alok Datar @AlokDatar]

Comparison with China is ludicrous. China does not have to concern with land acquisition issues, protests at the drop of a hat. China also did not care about environmental concerns until they were already developed. They also dont have state govts that block for political reasons.

[Alok Datar @AlokDatar]

@Aunindyo2023 And that there is answer to why we are still here after almost 80yrs of independence. We are suspicious of success. Public money was passed to capitalist to develop public assets, which they did. Them profitting is not a bad deal for the public, we benefitted too.

[Alok Datar @AlokDatar]

@ShefVaidya @asadowaisi @BJP4India There is that old saying 'If you are 20 and you are not a leftist you lack a heart, also if you are 40 and still a leftist you lack a brain'.

Most kids tend to be left leaning until real life hits them in the face and they wise up

[Alok Datar @AlokDatar]

@garvit_sethii I get the frustration, I really do. We never show up as a united block and frequently vote against our own interests. How many GC kids back this Dipke guy whose stated goal is expanding reservation. BJP may not be perfect for us but for now they are better than the alternative.

[Alok Datar @AlokDatar]

@rishabhm To the victor go the spoils. They won today, exactly what they won remains to be seen but they won. They get to gloat. Next move to Mr. Modi, to get the train back on track. They have angered their own voters to chase after voters who will never back them, won't be easy.

[Alok Datar @AlokDatar]

@natrajan_usha @Tushar15 @abhijeet_dipke @CJP_for_India I think that should have a thought for the supporters. Dipke to his credit has been clear about his intentions on reservations. The GC kids should have known better than to have helped him achieve his goals. They may just have cut their nose to spite their face.

[Alok Datar @AlokDatar]

@CuteAaruhi4 Further irony, and a tip of my cap to this criminal genius. He got the GC students whose opportunities he stole to back his political career, where once he gets to power he and his ilk will steal whatever little the GC kids have left. He is open about it too. Mindblowing!

[Alok Datar @AlokDatar]

@INCKerala @narendramodi Instead of trying to backdoor your way to power maybe present us a reason for why we should trust you over him. We know what he has done for the country, and we know what you haven't. He is not perfect, as this fiasco today shows, but he is still the best we have ever had.

[Alok Datar @AlokDatar]

@krupakotecha_ Irreverance is a great as long as you can take it as good as you dish out. For all their foul mouthed bravado this is also the most emotionally fragile generation.

[Alok Datar @AlokDatar]

@free_thinker Yet most of them idolise and follow their influencers like lemmings. Its the same sickness different symptoms. And its easy to be brazen when someone else is footing the bill.

[Alok Datar @AlokDatar]

@Harshdubey9956 Because it was never about NEET or any such competitive exams. It was never about the students. It was a AAP reclamation project under the guise of CJP with the aim to dent the govt. They have succeeded in the second goal not quite the first.

[Alok Datar @AlokDatar]

@gopalaiahvinay @Tushar15 Rampant terrorist attacks across the country and kadi ninda as a response. Indecisiveness on infrastructure development then. And if you believe India was never divided across religous and caste lines before 2014 then you were living in lala land not India

[Alok Datar @AlokDatar]

@bharat_asani @Tushar15 Anarchy won. We see where this road leads, we have been there before. The idiotic GC students at the protest, they have no idea what they have unleashed. If they thought new UGC rules were bad, wait till they see whats coming their way if NDA loses 2029