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Thank Modi for demonetisation - it's time for change

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Seema Kamdar
Seema KamdarNov 14, 2016 | 15:34

Thank Modi for demonetisation - it's time for change

Returning home late on Thursday, I looked around and found myself alone on a lane. Habitual apprehensions kicked in. It was a Pavlovian response, till it occurred to me that I had nothing a lurking thief might want. There were some Rs 500 notes that would need to be changed by him at some bank after a two hour wait, Rs 4,000 at a time.

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With his mug caught on the video camera while he was in the process of making that exchange, not to mention his biometric prints or antecedents having to be made available, it may not really be worth his while. He could certainly sell the nominal jewellery I had on me - my earrings - but there was no way the jeweller would pay him in Rs 100 notes, unless the thief was to furnish his account number for an online transfer.

My ATM card would excite him little, given the prospect of a one-hour wait to get a piddly Rs 2,000. And I carry no credit card on me.  

I felt relaxed, free and empowered. At least for a couple of days, if not more, I need not guard any property of mine. Nobody wants it. The television set, computers, furniture, and kitchen appliances at home are for the faint-hearted burglar who dares not to strike big. But then, none of this gets him anywhere much till the problem of currency exchange lasts.It was an almost revolutionary feeling - the equivalent of flinging my wads of currency up in the air without a care, or the worry that someone else might grab it.

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These are certainly changing times. Or should we say, time for some change? Credit: Reuters

Jokes apart, the midnight strike of November 8 has rustled, stirred and shaken things all round. The black money hoarders - especially the kingpins - are overnight liquidating long-earned debts by paying their creditors in cash. One hears that this cash, for want of any easier method of legitimisation, is finding its way into invisible holes where new notes are being handed out at a premium.

A labourer working in my building was overheard saying that someone pressed a Rs 500 in his hand and, in return, took the only Rs 100 he had. "Woh dekar chala gaya (He gave it and left)," he said bemused, obviously not quite sure what to make of this inexplicable bonanza. Indeed, it is a windfall for some of the country's poor whose services, it is said, are being requisitioned to exchange some money for their employers or just about anyone they might know or not know so long as they can be trusted to return the money at some point in the new colours. Some new variant of money laundering? Possibly, although a much humbler and narrow-scoped one, with its inherent limitations of reach. It is also a sort of a leveller where the poor are riding the gravy train and actually get to tell the rich, "Keep the change."

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It's a sociological turnaround, even if for a bit, towards socialism. Look around your ATM queue. Standing with you are clerks, students, businessmen, doctors, professors, and daily wage workers. You are watching your every expense. That last 100 rupee note better last long. The children are quibbling over the rationing of their pocket money and what are you telling them? "You may not get even this from tomorrow. Look at how other children manage. Learn."

While inconveniencing the good and the bad, the demonetisation drive  - or should we call it remonetisation? - has struck fear in the hearts of the moneybags. Hate him or love him, they believe Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he says he has some serious action in mind to be rolled out for the likes who don't comply with the tax regime. Thus, one hears stories of bags full of money literally being dumped. Most buy these stories and tell you, "There is a limit to which you can decriminalise your cash. And not all can do it."

If WhatsApp is saturated with hilarious spoofs and wisecracks, Facebook is populated with grunts. On the ground, the fear is real. A flutter has set in, with many rumour mills spinning wildly. Some say safe deposit vaults will be sealed next and are rushing to clear them out. Some anticipate raids on home and offices. Some others believe a cap on possessing gold, a la Morarji Desai as union finance minister in the 1960s, is on its way to prise out some more black money. If any of this does follow, they'll be there to remind you that you heard it here first. That is a critical part of the whisper chain. Or these considered prophesies would not spread.   

In the makeover to the new currency regime, the electronic media finds itself grappling, as usual. One English news channel anchor indignantly asks a hysterical Opposition leader, "Which private hospital has refused to accept the notes? Tell me, Sir. Tell me a name. You can't make a general allegation."

The politician in question is too caught up in his indignation to correct him that it's just the public hospitals that have been permitted to accept the old notes, not the private ones, probably because doing that would give black money another avenue to slip into a white gown.

The next two channels confound the confusion around deposits that can be made - one of them tells us we are allowed to deposit Rs 2.5 lakh in our accounts; the second one says it is Rs 2 lakh. Of course, both of them insist any deposits above Rs 10 lakh would be investigated as cases of tax evasion. Does this mean we can actually deposit up to Rs 8 lakh? No explanation offered. Duh.

A daily inserted a wise infographic in its Thursday edition informing us that toll plazas were exempt from demonetisation, totally oblivious that its next column in the same infographic told us in itals that national highway toll had been waived. Scratch your tens and hundreds.  

Inflection point. Economic catharsis. Chaotic cleansing. These are certainly changing times. Or should we say, time for some change?

Last updated: November 14, 2016 | 15:34
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