Will Modi winning 2019 elections put an end to news of demonetisation?
It’s hard to remember a time when a government policy kept the whole country on tenterhooks for three straight weeks. The public is actually more exhausted by reading opeds on demonetisation than they are by standing in queues outside ATMs.
There also exists a certain dichotomy where people do not want to engage in a conversation on anything seemingly related to demonetisation, but somehow there is just nothing else to gossip about. It has become your pick-up line but also your biggest turn off.
One still has to be generally careful of what they are speaking out in public on this sensitive issue. What if you unknowingly praise this move “against black money and corruption” as historic in front of a fierce opponent of Narendra Modi’s hysterics?
You will not only be admonished socially for it but will also be given an unwanted lesson on Indian politics, monetary policy and Donald Trump. Because it's criminal to complete a discussion in India without mentioning the president-elect of the US.
In any case, most sensible people have decided it is best to have two opinions on demonetisation and to deploy them strategically. It’s best not to get attacked for your defensive position and not try to defend while taking an aggressive position.
Frankly, it has never been harder to admit your cluelessness on matters of public policy but at the same time it has never been easier to opine and preach.
In a way, this disease becomes a serious handicap if you have been consuming news from different social media platforms. Which means there has never been a better time to take a break from them.
For once, when you open your Facebook or Twitter page, the first thing you want to do is to shut them down. That’s how sick you are of reading about demonetisation.
Quite a turnaround this has been, right? You needed social media to distract yourselves from the reality around you but now you need another distraction to distract yourself from social media.
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| For once, when you open your Facebook or Twitter page, the first thing you want to do is to shut them down. |
Quite ironical though that our actual public discourse has become like that of social media because of this controversy. No, really. Look at this laundry list: we have gained expertise on subjects we had no prior knowledge of, our views have become extreme without being subjected to any moderation, we are hobbled by groupthink and disconnected from reality, we suspect the motives of those who oppose us and finally none of us really knows what is actually going to happen.
What has happened to us? What has demonetisation done to our civil discourse? We were quite happy living in our own sweet bubble, defending or criticising government policies with the comfort of knowing they didn’t impact us directly.
For once, we have been asked to judge an economic policy that has affected us all even though we would most likely vote on the basis of serious political deliberations on Whatsapp.
Frankly, we should go back to watching mainstream media as the primary source of our news. At least, that would help in one major way: most people will have the same views as others because that’s how one-sided the coverage is.
Also, we would know the future because our dear “pundits” love to predict. Which means that if they have predicted X, please be rest assured that the opposite of X will turn out to be true.
Most importantly, we need to ask why does everyone need to write about demonetisation? Are there no other issues left to cover? Not really.
But the other important news stories, be it the train accident in Kanpur or the terror attacks in Kashmir or even the jailbreak in Punjab, all have remained under the shadow of demonetisation.
Therefore, the pressing issue of our times is not when things would become normal but when this news cycle will be broken by a bigger news story. At this moment, it seems that would only happen if Narendra Modi wins the 2019 election and that too by a bigger margin than 2014.
In that case, my sincere apologies for turning into a pundit by making another lame prediction and ruining your precious ten minutes by making you read another piece on demonetisation.