\”Demonetisation\” was the new word introduced in the lexicon of the masses since 8th Nov when PM made that \”disruptive/ path-breaking\”address to the nation, taking the citizens by surprise. The initial reactions by and large were positive with people admiring the guts and the intent of the PM, however with the passage of time, the enormity of it all with almost 85% of the currency in circulation being declared invalid, dawned on most of us. The long winding never ending queues reminded us of the sixties and seventies when these queues were normally outside ration shops, for the controlled issue of sugar, kerosene and other food grains were the prizes. For the oldies it was deja vu, but the youngsters, the eighties and beyond generation had not seen any such queues anywhere, for them it was naturally quite a shock.
The devil here was in the detail and in the root of the word itself, ie the etymology \”demon – itisation\”, with a demon to start it all it had to be fraught with challenges galore. The origin of the word can be traced back to 1852, from French démonétisation, from démonetiser, and over the past century and a half this trick has been resorted to quite a few times within India itself, this was the third occasion for such an exercise.Well all this was trivia and though some of you may find it interesting, the major issue with the sudden and acute shortage of currency was day to day subsistence for the common man.
All of a sudden he was expected to migrate to a digital economy ie the other side of the digital divide, mind you this was herculean by even ordinary standards, expecting fellow citizens to follow rules, you must be joking (!); In India where road rage has always been the rage and rules were always meant to be broken, to expect them to suddenly turn a new \”digital leaf\” from 9th Nov morning, well…..Namo is helluva optimist(!)
Sure enough there were naysayers, the political parties with loads of cash in their treasure chests, the hawala operators and even the small time businessmen not used to declaring their income were all hit in the gut. Indian ingenuity in breaking the rules and finding a short cut can not be surpassed so sure enough, it was the bankers\’ turn this time around and they wanted to rake it in and boy they really killed it while we demonetised.
The serpentine queues would keep on growing and media was having a field day reporting on all the disruption, inconvenience and the unfortunate deaths which occurred in these two months. But surprise of surprise, there were no demonstrations, burning down of ATMs, banks, or destruction of public property which is the norm for all kinds of protests. So was the mango man actually supporting this revolutionary step or was it that he was too engrossed in trying to ensure the next meal for his family.
Well actually the men and women on the street are rather smart because even after the D day they continued to trade in the demonetised currency as confirmed to me by an ola cab driver, the vegetable vendors, the maids, the washerman as they were aware that they could exchange these hard-earned notes from the banks whenever they wanted before 31 Dec. Moreover they are used to living on credit even otherwise. So who was really effected and who was crying the loudest …. Obviously it was not the poor. But that does not mean that the step was a huge success as it is evident the economy has been hit, as of now it may appear to be short term but we will get to know in the days to come……
By now the queues have disappeared, the e wallet companies have made their moolah and we are back to the normal cash economy 😁😁