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Is media lying about demonetisation? 23 ATMs later, the shocking truth

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DailyBiteNov 21, 2016 | 15:57

Is media lying about demonetisation? 23 ATMs later, the shocking truth

Remember when weekends used to mean waking up late, and lazing around all day? Well, the Modi sarkar’s demonetisation drive has totally put an end to that. For the service class, it is obviously difficult to queue up in front of banks/ATMs on the week days. Hence, from two weekends now, people have been trying to make the most of their days off by trying to get their hands on some cash in these dire conditions.

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Like with most news related to the Modi sarkar these days (since 2014, really), anytime someone says something that is remotely critical of the government, a huge number of people jump ahead to call it a lie or skewing of facts. One cannot deny the fact that there have been a few incidents of wrong reportage as well. But calling everything reported about the PM a lie, is stretching it too far.

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Truth be told, anyone who has stepped out of their homes to visit a bank will know that things are as bad as they have ever been. [Photo: Indiatoday.in]

This has been the case, more than ever, for the demonetisation drive. While media reports every day tell stories of deaths and major problems caused by this decidedly unplanned move, the fanboys of BJP line up to shoot these claims down, armed to the teeth with excuses like “minor inconvenience”, “lies”, “you support black money”, and “if the armed forces can...”.

Truth be told, anyone who has stepped out of their homes to visit a bank will know that things are as bad as they have ever been. The queues keep getting longer and the cash keeps running dry faster. Defunct ATM vestibules have probably reached record numbers by now and of course, more people keep dying because of this economic disaster every day.

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Tinu Cherian Abraham, a Bangalore-based social media influencer decided that Sunday was a good day to verify if the media was actually spreading lies. He decided to go from ATM to ATM in and around the Whitefield and the KR Puram areas in Bengaluru.

Tinu Cherian started at 10.30 am and covered 23 ATMs on foot, in the next 6 hours. "It was an impromptu plan on a Sunday. Under normal circumstances, all the ATMs in the city should be working and I decided to do a status check. As my tweets carried the time and details of the ATMs, there was no reason for any kind of ambiguity in them," he said to The News Minute.

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Most ATMs he visited, that he documented with photos, had no cash at all. The other few that did, had long queues and dispensed only Rs 2,000 notes.

The final count? Of the 23 ATMs he visited, only four ATMs were functional.

Verdict: There absolutely is a cash crunch and anyone who believes that this is a minor inconvenience, is either kidding themselves, or is too blind with Modi love to perceive the truth at all.

Also read - Demonetisation: Rhetoric as policy and people as fools

Last updated: November 21, 2016 | 15:57
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