Since last thirty days just one topic is making rounds. No need to mention, its everyone’s guess. Never in history has anyone taken such a bold step, which has put the political career of many at stake. The decision has touched every soul in the country in some way or the other.
The historical speech of PM bewildered each one of us. On 8th of November 2016, PM left everyone spell bound. Not even the experts on money matters could believe that a decision with such an intense gravity and magnitude could be spelled out with utterly convincing simplicity. Everyone was numbed by the suddenness of the declaration. It took some time for all, to come to senses, and on a lighter note, the first primal reaction was to hunt for all the 500.00 and 1000.00 rupee notes in the home. However, the Economists were first to react. Probably the key words, Money, Black Money, Fake Money being their exclusive domain. There were hundreds of theories making rounds onestimations of the currencies that would be deposited, the loopholes, the repercussions, the after effects and so on. Honestly, no one had the slightest idea of how things would turn out to be. Next few days witnessed long queues in front of Bank and ATM. The socialists who had hibernated till now, suddenly woke up from their slumber. The poor and the needy had evoked their sympathy. It was now their turn to be vocal about the hardships being faced by the common man. As per the intelligentsia, this was the stupidest decision in a million years, mostly because they did not see a single black marketer in the queue. A few days later the Banks realized that same people turned out every day in the queue. The Government came out with an ingenious method of inking the finger, just to know how many times a person came in to exchange the old currency. Suddenly there was a drop in the length of the queue. The black marketers had paid the people to stand in queue to exchange money for them. If an iota of sensibility had prevailed over the liberals they wouldn’t have wondered why black marketers were not standing in the queue.
As parents we all rejoiced the redundancy of the currency, because with it was gone the disparity that existed. We, despite our best efforts to earn and save, could never come up to the expectations of our children, who wanted to have everything branded. The brand culture had robbed us of our simplicity and social values. The marriages were one more of such social evils that put lot of pressure on parents, who had to burn their hard earned money to keep up their status with those, for whom money came in easy and in abundance.
The decision to ban certain old currencies has an economic, political and social implication. In this country 129 crore people have been affected in some way or the other by this decision. It is tough to analyze the magnitude of the outcome. Here, the psyches, the problem, the constraint, the compulsion of every individual play a vital role. The depth of the issues is unfathomable and height of the probabilities is unreachable. Such issues require a holistic and matured approach.
In the past one month we have witnessed a barrage of expert opinions. Each opinion is further influenced by the loyalty towards their cult, their stance, their position, their limits and also their limitations. Honestly speaking, none of us are able to gauge the final outcome. We are not sure if this move is going to hit black marketers, drug mafia, the builders, the politicians, the tax evaders, the tutors, the doctors, the terrorists, the poor, the middle class….The list is endless and we are clueless. We are groping in the dark just like the six blind men of India who tried to identify the elephant. In our zeal to participate in the discussions, we cut paste whatever seems juicy enough, without understanding the repercussions of promoting such opinions. These are paid, prejudiced, partial perceptions. We should not fall prey to these. This is not the time to sway to the impressive columns, editorial, tweets or posts on Facebook or Whatsapp. It is the time for the educated and elite to introspect and strive to build a nation and society we deserve. None of the opinions or judgments should hijack our effort to build a society of our belief. Today, the common man should be congratulated because he is the only one who has wholeheartedly responded to the situation despite poor administrative management.
