Modi should take responsibility for people who have died due to demonetisation

At 8pm on November 8, just as the results of the US Presidential election was unfolding on news channels, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the decision to demonetise currency notes of the value of 500 and 1,000.

In his usual flourish, the PM declared the bills of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 "not legal tender from midnight tonight" and to be "just worthless piece of paper".

People were stunned and the media caught off-guard as nobody had any clue about this sudden development. Folks with piles of cash with them scrambled to their nearest malls to utilise the three-hour window and spend as much as they could.

Opposition politicians initially seemed dazed and couldn't make up their minds if they should welcome it or rather denounce it as they are programmed to. Most people agreed that it was an audacious move and should wait and watch before forming an opinion either way.

It was not until a couple of days later that people realised the magnitude of the situation. Eighty-six per cent of the total currency in circulation in India is made up of the bills of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 and that meant the economy got a terrible shock with most productive activities in rural India coming to a grinding halt.

A fortnight on, many things happened that has polarised opinion with a marked urban-rural divide. While legitimate questions were initially raised on whether some people had prior information of the government's plan, the shoddy implementation and the visible lack of preparedness have been most telling.

Though the government claimed that this was meticulously planned and kept under wraps for six months, the evidence on record suggests otherwise with the new currency notes sporting the signature of the new Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor, Urjit Patel who took charge on September 6.

While the media has highlighted the plight of many farmers in parts of Uttar Pradesh and Punjab where the sowing season is on, the people in the hinterlands have been the worst affected in this exercise.

The government had exempted some vital services like petrol bunks, government hospitals and chemists from the new rule and have periodically extended the dates of exemption to ensure the supply of essential goods and logistics.

But for some reason, private hospitals have not been given any priority despite an overwhelming majority of Indians preferring them over public health centres.

The number of deaths directly or indirectly linked to this demonetisation drive has crossed 70 according to media reports. And some of them have been attributed to the lack of timely medical treatment.

In rural India, where the number of private hospitals or even government hospitals is woefully inadequate, this has compounded the misery. It begs the question as to why the government hasn't chosen to address this issue when more than 15 changes have been already made to the initial plan announced by the prime minister.

The crisis in rural India has been further exacerbated by the government's decision in conjunction with the RBI to deny district and rural cooperative banks to transact business and be a part of the exercise.

A new circular issued by the RBI on November 18 has brought down the threshold of demonetised notes to be exchanged at banks from Rs 4,500 to 2,000 till December 31.

This, when the RBI's own estimate of the penetration of bank accounts in the country is merely 53 per cent. While the step has been apparently taken to prevent big fishes from taking advantage of the scheme by sending people to the queues to exchange their unaccounted money piecemeal, this means that people without bank accounts would get further marginalised.

Ninety per cent of India's rural economy is a cash economy and the government has given scant regard to this reality. In a country where the informal or the unorganised sector accounts for 45 per cent and provides 80 per cent of the jobs, demonetisation has completely crippled the rural economy and there are fears that this would adversely affect the output in the long run.

The reaction of the majority of middle class in Delhi has been rather baffling. While they generally tend to criticise corruption they see all around them even as they figure out innovative ways to evade taxes, their dismissal of the suffering of the rural folk has been in rather poor taste.

Many Delhiites, whose moral sense is usually limited to hosting religious jagrans and kirtans, or to the extent of exhorting people to vote for the Aam Aadmi Party, have been exuberant ever since.

This is not an isolated case as it turns out. This class divide is even more apparent when you speak to people in major tier 2 and tier 3 cities in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. It reminds one of a scene in George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion where Alfred Doolittle tells professor Henry Higgins, "What is middle class morality? Just an excuse for never giving the undeserving poor anything."

If there is anything more baffling than the reaction of the middle class, it has been the conduct of the honourable prime minister himself. A day after he announced his decision on demonetisation, he embarked on a three-day visit of Japan, albeit for an important nuclear deal to be signed among other things.

After coming back to the country, he was heard speaking emotionally, even shedding a tear or two, while speaking of his will and resolve to rid the country of black money.

This was followed by the prime minister's nonagenarian mother Heeraben queuing up at a bank to exchange money, becoming a political prop in the process.

The Parliament has been in session since November 16 but Prime Minister Modi appears in no mood to attend the house despite being in the vicinity. And to add insult to injury, the PM thought it fit to address the crowd at a Coldplay concert via video conference even as he has been intent on giving the Parliament a miss all these days.

And the opulent wedding of the daughter of former BJP minister G Janardana Reddy in Bangalore, estimated to have cost upwards of Rs 500 crore, was perhaps the worst case of irony that confronted the common man as they slept outside ATMs in different parts of India braving the winter chill.

The latest salvo from the prime minister is to ask the citizens (or netizens?) to rate demonetisation on his Narendra Modi app on their smartphones. It's once again ironic as mobile internet users in India are no more than 30 per cent of the population.

It again smacks of the same elitist mindset that imposed this momentous half-baked program upon a country that is far from ready to adapt to it.

The Opposition can't seem to get united and appear unsure of their strategy and devoid of ideas to come up with solutions that could ameliorate the pain of the masses.

Many economists are still sceptical about the end result that can be achieved on December 31. The government estimates that out of the 14 lakh crore demonetised currency, at least 2 lakh crore would turn out to be unaccounted thereby decreasing liabilities of banks and adding to their reserve funds, a part of which would then be shared with the government as dividend.

But more importantly, who will account for the blood of all the citizens who lose their life on this account by December 31?

Also read - Railway cashiers reveal where the Rs 100 notes are