Debates, Discussions, Demonetisation
and Distress
Most
discussions and debates on demonetisation have a few things in common: the move
is right; it is the worst planned event in India’s economic history;
calculations on black money went wrong; and rural masses are in distress unable
to meet their daily needs. I am a strong votary of demonetisation. I am,
however, not a supporter of complete digitisation or cashless economy. Less
cash economy can be a target of gradualism and not maximalism.
Former
Governors of RBI, C. Rangarajan, Y.V. Reddy, and Subbarao also lent support to
the move in their articulations in the Press and media. Kenneth Rogoff,
renowned economist also supported the move, but the mechanism suggested was
gradualism and not a sudden action like the currently engineered measure.
However, would all these articulations, mine not excluded, alleviate the
distress of the vast rural masses?
Both
houses of Parliament demanded a discussion, but were unwilling to discuss
demonetisation for reasons that the common man was unable to understand. The
distress of those who had to bury their dead or had imminent marriages in the
family, not to mention the plight labour on daily wages has been immense.
