Demonetisation – A blessing or a curse in disguise?
“Bhaiyya, 2 kilo gajar dena” *gives 2000 rupee note to the vendor* *vendor refuses to take the note and gives the customer a disgusted look*
This is the scenario of the markets since the demonetisation rule has been implied. Gone are the days when 50 paise coins used to work, and now our dear old 500 and 1000 rupee notes have fallen in the same category -useless trash.
Now, coming to the changed currency, was this really necessary? Or instead, has anything concrete and beneficial incident or deposition occurred by this? While large scale businessmen and companies haven’t incurred a single loss (thanks to their great techniques which the world is unaware of and which the government is fully aware of but totally ignores), middle-class Indians, farmers, are the ones most affected. Do you think you can get the change for a 2000 rupee note in a 5×5 area built-up shop in a village? Do you think people living in the hilly areas of Kashmir can use debit cards for their transactions that have never seen a bank in their entire life? Do you think a farmer knows how to ‘Paytm’ and deposit money through that? ‘Digital India’ it is, right? But do we even realise that this digital technology is as alien to farmers as is flying an Airbus A380 to an ordinary non-pilot. And they say, ache din aane waale hai. 2-3 years it has been and Ek bhi acha din kyu nahi aa raha? We waited for so long for our jobs to get better, for our salaries to increase, for every little dream we had by this ‘ache din’ scheme, but what have we got? (Or better, what have we lost?), ALL OUR MONEY! Yayyy! *wink wink*
For all the black money hidden in the walls, car seats and etcetera places in corrupt politicians and businessmen’s homes, it has proven a bit fruitful, because all that is just paper now. But they have planned a way out. They use the common man’s helplessness and get their black money turned into white by depositing it in these people’s accounts. (And later transferring it into their own accounts, of course!) The result? No black money! All turned into white successfully! India would be more developed than USA if these people used their minds into the progress of the nation, rather than the progress of the cash bundles in their pockets.
While there are many laws and rules being made for the illegal happenings in the country for the demonetisation transactions and currency exchange, equal number of crimes regarding the same has been committed. We’d a ‘offer’ going around the city which involved exchanging your old 500 notes for 3-4 hundred rupee notes (that’s with a deduction of 100-200 rupees as commission), and the same for 1000 rupee notes with a deduction of 200-300 rupees. How cool is that, isn’t it? The common man works day and night to get the 500-1000 notes and one night he suddenly gets to know that he worked his sweat off for these ‘now-just-paper’ notes. And a treat for him, he gets his notes exchanged with deductions for no fault of his. Just because he lives in a country where there are many corrupt politicians and people around, the common man has to suffer by giving up his hard-earned money. People who live their life with 5000-10000 rupees salaries per month, how are they supposed to buy ration if their notes aren’t accepted?
Now that the 2000 rupee notes are out, the ATM lines are still never-ending. People are being seen standing in the lines outside the ATMs from 5 in the morning, since the time they get deposited with new notes. ATMs which haven’t been used since ever, are now seen flooded with account-holders dying the lines to get the cash to feed their family. Marriages and functions on the other hand are being postponed for the lack of cash. With the limit being raised to 3500 transaction per day, it still goes up to 7 lakhs in 20 days which isn’t enough for the oomph full of weddings these days.
There have been incidents of marriages being postponed even after the wedding cards have been distributed a week ago. How do you think those people must have managed?
As far as the new tactics to demolish illegal schemes are concerned, they seem good enough but too good to believe. Help is being offered to the farmers and people without a smartphone who do not have the facility of Paytm by dialling a toll free number and easy transactions with the use of an adhaar card. All we hope is that this campaign doesn’t get directed in a way too opposite than it was implemented for.
Why dint the government try to foresee what the consequences would be? Why is it blind to the sufferings of the citizens of India? Demonetisation isn’t a dream to the commoners, it’s a nightmare come true.
