Money

 

It’s a long time now from the time Narendra Modi made trash of our 85% cash. The politics of our country seems to have gone haywire. The ones who are the rulers are acting like they are the opposition while the opposite is happening with the opposition who are acting like the rulers. R. Prasannan says that we have been taught to believe that people in the government are like the good boys in the class. Being good boys the sit in the Parliament, debate bills, make laws and take decisions for the good of all in this country.

On the other hand are the bad boys who disrupt Parliament, go out during the sessions, go out into the streets, hold hartals, damage offices, block roads, close shops and do many things that trouble our everyday life. However according to R. Prasannan the roles have now been reversed where the bad boys are sitting tight for class while the good ones are bunking classes.

The P. M’s mind is that we go e- shopping and make less use of currency. It makes sense to a certain extent, but for the poor who are cardless are left clueless. As soon as the news was broken by our P. M, Indians began lining up at banks and at ATM’s. It was a sight to admire! It was like a ration shop scene where cash was rationed to poor people. It is funny to note that the rich are cashless while the poor are cardless. The question to ask here is: are all people belonging to different classes taken into consideration in the demonetization programme?

Soon the ATM’s ran out of currency and many ATM’s shutters were pulled and a note was put ‘ATM closed, out of currency’. All people including Modi, since then have been asking us to bear with him for 50 days, not to mention the many times he became emotional (as per what appeared in the newspapers) when he was addressing the poor. Hopefully the New Year will begin on a corruption and black money free note. 

The ones who have been severely affected due to this are the poor people who live from hand to mouth. The people selling vegetables, milk packets and other groceries were left without anything because the amount of the new note is too high for them to give change to the customers who came to them. The waiters and waitresses in all dhabas, hotels and other eateries must have surely faced customers who have told them that they didn’t have change.

Also, many people have had to skip their working hours so as to stand in the never ending queues so as to get money. Due to the problem of change common people get thrown out of the buses, hospitals and other public places. To add to this, the lucky few who managed to get the 2000 rupee notes feel like they have a cheque in their hand. According to me, the ones who made the most during this time were the oil supplying (petrol, diesel etc) companies who told the people to fill petrol worth 500 or 1000 rupees as they too were short of change.

This was actually the best moment for the opposition to strike. All legitimate forms of protest namely which opposition has been claiming for decades namely taking to the streets, shouting slogans from ATM queues, blocking roads, addressing street corner crowds, picketing banks, closing shops and sitting for a fast could have been done. All this would have brought the economy to a halt and the government on its knees. However nothing of this sort has taken place. To add to all this, if I’m not mistaken the P.M and the government can’t even be criticized. This is like the infallibility of the Pope.

The P.M has been making speeches to make known to people that things have been bad in our country and that this demonetization will soon clear off the mess created by black money. This is precisely the paradox i. e. he speaks outside the Parliament to people with wonderful language beyond description, but doesn’t even ‘make an explanatory statement in the Parliament, which is the highest forum of democracy’ says R. Prasannan. 

All hope that the best may come out of this situation.