One year of Demonetisation! Was note ban the right move to trace black money?

On November 8, 2016, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi appeared on national television and with one stroke said that from midnight (November 9) Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 will be declared as illegal tender and it created a shock among one and sundry. All the attention was on American presidential election results for the 2016 and Modi by demonetising 86 percent of the legal tender stole the thunder from Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump and November 9, 2016 became all about what is legal and what is illegal?

Indian republic ever since the independence has seen many struggles and hardships but this autocratic decision, if one may say, created chaos and people were dumbfounded on why they were forced to stand in unending queues to withdraw their own hard earned money. According to the reports over 100 people died standing in serpentine queues and next 50 days were like nightmare for common and poor people. PM Modi wanted to attack and eliminate black money from the source and for that he urged people to face hardships for the gain of greater good. The Indian government kept on emphasising on short term pain for long term gain and said that with demonetisation or notebandi terrorism, counterfeit currency, Naxalism, Hawala money and corruption will vanish and Indian system will be cleansed after years of neglect and to make India a prosperous nation this step was necessary.

Indian people are resilient and will go to any trouble for the greater good, but this exercise was in plain language stupid and didn’t serve any purpose. The ruling BJP gained electorally and won the Uttar Pradesh elections, but the damage was done on small, micro, medium industries and the life of traders was completely ruined and their business were on the verge of collapse. Many economists and opposition leaders said this was nothing but a rhetoric and when RBI said that 99 per cent of the demonetised currency returned to the system, the opposition proved right and the whole demonetisation proved a humongous failure. India’s GDP also fell in the last quarter (5.7) and it was largely due to the hastily implemented and executed notebandi.

Also read: A year after demonetisation, the hunt for elusive black money continues

Narendra Modi is India’s most popular leader and when he made that decision he himself must not be aware about the effect of this process would have on common people. As per the government records cross-border terrorism has not stooped, black money is still there in the system, counterfeit currency is still in the market and nothing has changed with the noble exercise of eradication of black money. PM Modi and his cabinet are still not accepting their gross mistake and are continuing with the rhetoric and commentary about black money. Indian growth story has plummeted and whether our PM agrees or not it has put India quite a few years back.

November 8, 2017 will mark the first anniversary of demonetisation and jury is still out whether demonetisation served any purpose or not. The ruling dispensation will celebrate this day as Anti-black money day while opposition will be observing this as black day. What happened one year ago can’t be changed, but history will always judge this day as something of a disruption and Indian republic has still not moved on from this exercise called demonetisation.