Demonetisation anniversary highlights: Congress observes black day; Rahul Gandhi calls note ban a 'tragedy'

Demonetised notes find way into temples

Scrapped Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes continue to find their way into donation boxes at some temples in Odisha. Unable to dump their old currency notes, devotees are dropping the demonetised notes in donation boxes at Jagannath Temple in Puri and Lingaraja Temple in Bhubaneswar.

The deadline for exchange of demonetised notes expired on December 30 last year. Now, the temple trustees are worried about how to encash the devalued denominations. – IANS

Better implementation could have minimised people’s suffering

The Government could have minimised the suffering with better planning. At the Initial stage, BSF/CRPF/Police vehicles could have been used to transfer funds to far flung location instead of depending only on bank approved security vehicles. Also, RBI should have alerted government about incompatibility of ATMs with new notes and time taken for re-calibration. – By R Vaidyanathan

Read full article _here_

Jayant Sinha challenges Mamata Banerjee, says demonetisation is not a scam

I am here to challenge Mamata ji & tell her directly that #Demonetisation is not a scam. This is a message I want to take to the people of Bengal and tell them what the people of India are saying today, that this is not a scam but a miracle: Union Minister Jayant Sinha in Kolkata pic.twitter.com/aWQliwLc0N

— ANI (@ANI) November 8, 2017

Tarun Gogoi says demonetisation disrupted India’s credibility

Participated in the massive protest against #DeMoDisaster by @narendramodi Govt which disrupted India's economic credibility.#BlackDay pic.twitter.com/7IgQcx3NrT

— Tarun Gogoi (@tarun_gogoi) November 8, 2017

In a first, govt ‘celebrating’ death, suffering: Left

The Left lashed out at the Narendra Modi government, saying that for the first time in India’s history, a government was “celebrating” death and suffering.

Six Left parties, which took to the streets to protest against the Centre’s demonetisation policy, said the government had set two records – making people lose their lives in queues and helping hoarders change black money into white.

“The Modi Government has created two records in the world. One, it made people stand in queues and many people lost their lives; Second, though Modi tried to tell the people and the world that by demonetisation he would stop black money, in reality he has helped hoarders change black money into white,” CPIM leader Brinda Karat said. – PTI

Demonetisation risked national security and stability

There has been a lot of commentary leading up to the first anniversary of demonetisation. Most of it has focused on the economic impact or the lack of it. But a significant sidelight of what happened last year seems to have been forgotten in these reviews of the good, bad, and ugly aspects of demonetisation.

This sidelight is the fact that the prime minister met with the three service chiefs on the evening of 8 November, just before he announced that high-denomination currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 would become invalid at midnight.

Read the entire article _here_

In Pictures: Congress protests in Bhopal against demonetisation

#MadhyaPradesh: Congress party's protest in #Bhopal on one year anniversary of #Demonetisation pic.twitter.com/OXb9K9egHE

— ANI (@ANI) November 8, 2017

AAP workers protest against demonetisation in Patna

Image sourced from PTI

Karnataka Congress members observe black day, protest against demonetisation

 Congress leaders from Karnataka gathered at Freedom Park, holding placards and shouting slogans against Narendra Modi and finance minister Arun Jaitley for the note ban move.

“What good did the note ban do, except for bring the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) down,” questioned Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president G Parameshwara at the gathering.

Protests are being held across Karnataka to make people aware of the failures of Demonetization. #BJPMoneyLaunderingDay pic.twitter.com/ZZm2HEEbn0

— Karnataka Congress (@INCKarnataka) November 8, 2017

Banned notes worth billions stuck with NRIs, money exchanges, claims businessman

Well-known businessman and Dubai-based NRI spokesperson Ram Buxani says one of the unsolved mysteries with regard to the collection of currency notes that have been banned is the casual indifference towards the huge sums of money lying with official money exchanges all across the globe.

According to him, NRIs and money exchanges possess billions of banned note. Many thousands of hardworking blue collars never even bothered to meet the 30 June 2017 deadline seeing as how it would be more expensive to travel home and then spend time in an alien city and look for accommodation and food while waiting for their turn.

What is worse is that legitimate money exchange branches holding billions in banned denominations legally and through no fault of their own are still sitting on these obsolete funds and have no way of getting rid of them.

Buxani said several petitions have been forwarded to the government agencies in New Delhi but they do not even reply. Every such rupee is white money. This is not hoarded black money, it is a legal service and if any money should be exchanged (literally) it should be such Indian currency abroad.

Read the entire article _here_

Mayawati lashed out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying the “hasty and immature” decision had hurt millions of poor in the country “very dearly”.

In a statement, the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said the scrapping of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes on 8 November last year had put the common man in huge discomfort and added that people were still reeling from the aftermath of demonetisation.

Vijender Gupta says demonetisation strengthened India’s base

#Demonetisation has strengthened India's base by cleansing the financial system & setting it onto the path of clean, digital, transparent economic regime. #AntiBlackMoneyDay

— Vijender Gupta (@Gupta_vijender) November 8, 2017

AAP joins protest against demonetisation

We are changing our DP to mourn those who lost their lives due to #Demonetization.
Plz change your DP in their memory !#DhokhaDiwas pic.twitter.com/7QIldOXAPP

— AAP (@AamAadmiParty) November 8, 2017

Manmohan Singh slams demonetisation move, says it took away 21,000 jobs in Surat alone

Former prime minister Manmohan Singh blamed demonetisation for rampant job losses and also for over 100 lives lost during those days, News18 reported.

Singh also described the demonetisation exercise as a reckless step.

In Pictures: Protest against demonetisation in Mumbai

Glimpses of today's protest against DeMonetisation on it's 1st Anniversary at Azaad Maidan, Mumbai. #BJPMoneyLaunderingDay pic.twitter.com/Nddb0U1Y97

— Mumbai Congress (@INCMumbai) November 8, 2017

DMK says note ban only brought hardship for common man

Demonetisation only brought hardship for common man, DMK working president MK Stalin said while leading the Opposition charge against the NDA government’s note ban move.

Clad in a black shirt, Stalin led a well-attended ‘Karuppu Dinam’ (Black Day) protest and raised slogans against the Narendra Modi government for note ban. PTI

Demonetisation increased financial savings of individuals: Personal finance expert

“The impact on savings has been positive. Money which was lying idle all over the place, for instance in lockers or home, was moved into the formal system. With interest rates going down, people started looking for alternative investment options and moved from real investment like gold to financial investments like MFs and equity. This increased financial savings in general,” Parag Paranjpe, certified financial planner and founder director of Think Consultants, told Firstpost’s Bindisha Sarang.

A year of Demonetisation: Ritika Khera speaks to Firstpost Hindi

Social scientist and noted economist Ritika Khera spoke to Firstpost Hindi and said that the demonetisation drive, as far as numbers are concerned, has failed. 

Rahul Gandhi sat down for an interaction with a select group of people from Surat's loom industry. #BJPMoneyLaunderingDay pic.twitter.com/LyQ7ErJ2sa

— Congress (@INCIndia) November 8, 2017

Parrikar says demonetisation has struck a low blow to anti-India forces

Former union minister and Goa CM Manohar Parrikar on Twitter said demonetisation has struck a blow to anti-India forces and had empowered the poor.

“Through increase in financial inclusion & formalisation of our economy, #Demonetisation empowered the poorest of poor,” Parrikar wrote on Twitter.

#Demonetisation was a reformist measure to weed out black money, strengthen our economy, & establish good governance. #AntiBlackMoneyDay

— Manohar Parrikar Memorial (@manoharparrikar) November 8, 2017

Coming soon, a book in memory of those who lost their lives in queues

‘Note-Bandi: Demonetisation and India’s Elusive Chase for Black Money’ is an upcoming book from Oxford University Press dedicated to the “memory of Indian citizens who lost their lives due to demonetisation”, IANS reported.

Excerpts from the preface by R Ramakumar.

‘Demonetisation’— the withdrawal of legal tender status of notes of denomination Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 — announced by India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi over a televised address on 8 November 2016 will go down in history as one of the most reactionary and illogical economic policies ever attempted in independent India. 

It crippled an economy that ran on cash and was plagued by a slowdown; it destroyed the livelihoods of millions of farmers, workers, traders, women and the elderly; and it violated the dignity and liberty of law-abiding citizens. 

Yet, in a post-truth world, demonetisation also left public opinion in India deeply polarised. The language of the state had a deceptive appeal. In a society marked by abject poverty and inequality, and where everyday lives of citizens are marred by myriad forms of corruption, it came as no surprise that Modi’s misadventure was received as a decisive measure.

Narendra Modi govt needs to introspect where it went wrong

What we have is a situation that an everyman’s psychologist would describe as the government being in a state of eloquent denial being converted into brazen politics. There is, however, room to believe that the commoner on the street has even to this day bought into Modi’s call for a goldmine beyond the short-term sufferings. Remember that BJP swept comfortably to power in the nation’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh. 

It would be better to look beyond the cop-and-robber chase and political bluster to see where the government actually might have gone wrong. At the heart of it all is a sort of cultural illiteracy that the BJP-led NDA has shown in dealing with the details of a mammoth, risky drive . That can apply to the goods and services tax (GST) as well, but that is another story.

RBI emerges as one of the most opaque govt institutions

In the last one year, the Reserve Bank of India has emerged as one the most opaque institutions in the country. The central bank, whose primary duty is to safeguard the interests of the common man, has stonewalled many an RTI query regarding the note ban.

It has to be remembered that the country’s central bank remained silent in the initial days of the ban when the citizens had a harrowing time with cash crunch at banks and ATMs coupled with long queues that also resulted in a few deaths. Not only did the bank stop giving regular updates early on, it tweaked the rules regarding cash withdrawal and deposit every now and then, compounding the problems of the people.

To an RTI query on why the decision was taken, it refused to give a reply Section 8(1)(a) of the Right to Information Act. This section allows a government institution to withhold “Information, [the] disclosure of which would prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of the State, relation with foreign state or lead to incitement of an offence.”

This prompted Shailesh Gandhi, former information commissioner of the country, to file a complaint against the RBI with the Central Information Commissioner. 

“This is sheer arrogance on the part of the RBI,” Gandhi told _Firstpost_ in an interview.  The central bank has refused to give many important details to the public citing some or other reason – something a democratic institution should never do.

BJP leaders make #AntiBlackMoneyDay trend 

India's highest ever unearthing of black money -
•17.73 lakh suspicious cases identified, ₹ 3.68 lakh Crore in 23.22 lakh bank accounts under suspicion
• Undisclosed income worth Rs 29, 213 Crore was detected/admitted
#AntiBlackMoneyDay pic.twitter.com/TqYzbxZvxg

— Dr Harsh Vardhan (@drharshvardhan) November 8, 2017

 BJP leaders slam Rahul Gandhi over latter’s criticism of Modi and Demonetisation

BJP leaders and Union ministers, including Railway Minister Piyush Goyal and Law and Justice and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, slammed the Congress vice-president for attacking the BJP government over the move to demonetise. 

Rahul, earlier today, tweeted out saying demonetisation was a tragedy. Later, in an oped piece in Financial Times, the Congress VP called the prime minister an ’elected autocrat’, and said in a bid to emulate China, our youths are out of jobs.  According to him, the reasons for the rise of “elected autocrats, such as Mr Modi” are two: the increased internet connectivity that is increasing transparency and destroying the institutions that were information silos and the dominance of China in the global job market.

If Rahul Gandhi was in any other party he would've been shown the way out, wherever he steps in Congress loses elections: Ravi Shankar Prasad pic.twitter.com/QZuZEETrwT

— ANI (@ANI) November 8, 2017

Sheikh Chilli ke sapne dekh rahe hain Rahul Ji. India is becoming Congress-free, they are being driven out of states, one after the other: Piyush Goyal pic.twitter.com/MjXK1MzyOY

— ANI (@ANI) November 8, 2017

Stone pelters have reduced because of demonetisation: Nirmala Sithraman

On one year anniversary of demonetisation, defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman says, “Biggest achievement is that terrorism has been badly hit and the stone pelters which were in thousands have reduced because their cash flow has been cut.”

Biggest achievement is that terrorism has been badly hit & the stone pelters which were in thousands have reduced because their cash flow has been cut: Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on one year anniversary of #Demonetisation pic.twitter.com/vmQiwNdycU

— ANI (@ANI) November 8, 2017

The role of #Demonitisation in crippling left wing terrorism & stone pelting gangs of Kashmir is good news for all Indians. #DeMoWins pic.twitter.com/ifWks8Cn4k

— Syed Shahnawaz Hussain (@ShahnawazBJP) November 8, 2017

Did demonetisation move just widen the rich-poor divide in India?

One of the biggest problem that India is facing is the increasing inequality. And it is likely that the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 last year just heightened the problem.

This is what former prime minister Manmohan Singh told Bloomberg Quint in an interview: “I also worry about the longer term impact of demonetisation. Headline GDP may well start to show an improvement after the recent lows. But rising inequality has been a constant threat to our nature of economic development. Demonetisation may exacerbate such inequalities which can be harder to rectify in the future. In such a diverse country such as ours, inequality can prove to be a far greater social malaise than in other homogeneous nations.”

Earlier, Singh’s analyses about the impact of demonetisation has come true. He had earlier said that the GDP would fall 2 percent. The number for April-June shows that the fall in growth may, in fact, be much worse.

And in this case too, Singh’s fears are likely to come true. The reason is that even after one year, there has not been any let up in the jobs scenario. As long as the informal sector continues to be in shatters, one cannot expect any improvement on this front.

This will indeed have a direct impact on the financial situation of the lower strata of the society.

Year on, the question that still haunts the common man is: why did Prime Minister Narendra Modi take the step?

There has not been a clear answer to the question on why the ban was imposed. There were certain objectives the prime minister explained in the speech on 8 November, 2016. However, the narrative kept changing. From curbing black money, corruption and terror funding, the objective later changed to digitisation of the economy.

So what exactly was the reason? The government seems to be as clueless as the common man.

Noted economist Jean Dreze has an explanation for this. “Today, my hunch is that he meant what he said on 8 November last year. He really believed in the myth that black money is a gigantic hoard of cash, waiting to be raided,” Dreze said in an email interaction with Firstpost.

Year on, the question that still haunts the common man is: why did Prime Minister Narendra Modi take the step?

There has not been a clear answer to the question on why the ban was imposed. There were certain objectives the prime minister explained in the speech on 8 November, 2016. However, the narrative kept changing. From curbing black money, corruption and terror funding, the objective later changed to digitisation of the economy.

So what exactly was the reason? The government seems to be as clueless as the common man.

Noted economist Jean Dreze has an explanation for this. “Today, my hunch is that he meant what he said on 8 November last year. He really believed in the myth that black money is a gigantic hoard of cash, waiting to be raided,” Dreze said in an email interaction with Firstpost.

Yechury says ‘job losses, lives and livelihoods destroyed as the poorest of the poor were hit by Jumlanomics’

As note bandi finishes a year, Opposition leaders shared toons and messages on social media. Senior CPM leader Sitaram Yechury tweeted out several messages criticising the move which came a year ago and said, “If unreturned money from cooperative banks, Bhutan and Nepal taken in, more than 100% of demonetised currency would have returned. Black money converted to White courtesy demonetisation, and govt paying interest on laundered money.”

What is the Modi govt celebrating? A demonetisation disaster which brought the economy to a halt. pic.twitter.com/sXq6Jqfchk

— Sitaram Yechury (@SitaramYechury) November 7, 2017

Everything that we warned about demonetisation has come true; the most cruel attack on the vast majority of Indians, opening most vicious doors for corruption and crony capitalism.

— Sitaram Yechury (@SitaramYechury) November 8, 2017

Dead people in queues exemplify the misery. Job losses, lives and livelihoods destroyed as the poorest of the poor were hit by Jumlanomics which took 86% of the cash out in a midnight Tughlaqi firman.

— Sitaram Yechury (@SitaramYechury) November 8, 2017

If unreturned money from cooperative banks, Bhutan and Nepal taken in, more than 100% of demonetised currency would have returned. Black money converted to White courtesy demonetisation, and govt paying interest on laundered money.

— Sitaram Yechury (@SitaramYechury) November 8, 2017

China is not India, says Rahul Gandhi

On demonetisation anniversary, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi wrote a searing oped in Financial Times. The article criticised note ban and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s political and economic policies.

• One year ago Narendra Modi bypassed the Reserve Bank of India, locked his cabinet in a room and gave the country just four hours notice before announcing his arbitrary and unilateral demonetisation scheme. Overnight 86 per cent of the value of India’s currency was withdrawn from circulation.

• Demonetisation has wiped out 2 per cent of India’s gross domestic product, destroyed the informal labour sector and has wiped out many small and medium businesses. It has ruined the lives of millions of hard-working Indians. The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy has calculated that over 1.5m people lost their jobs in the first four months of 2017 due to demonetisation.

• The rise of democratically elected autocrats, such as Mr Modi, is driven by two factors: a massive increase in connectivity and its profound impact on institutions; and, second, China’s dominance of the global job market.

• This advantage comes with a brutal cost — China’s people are not free to speak, to dissent or to question and those that do are swiftly and severely punished. This is not a model India should emulate.

Mamata demands probe into ‘big scam’ demonetisation

In a Facebook post, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee slammed the Centre over the demonetisation drive and said, “Demonetisation is a big scam. I repeat, demonetisation is a big scam. If thorough investigation is conducted, this will be proved. Demonetisation was not to combat black money. It was only to convert black money into white money for vested interests of political party in power.”

Jean Dreze told _Firstpost_ that he questioned the real objective behind demonetisation. 

“Various hypotheses have been put forward. None of them really explain why the prime minister would want to take this sort of risk with the economy. Today, my hunch is that he meant what he said on 8 November last year. He really believed in the myth that black money is a gigantic hoard of cash, waiting to be raided.”

“In economics, black money essentially refers to illicit earnings. That is a flow, not a stock. Illicit earnings do not stay still and accumulate, like a hoard. They are used to buy Jaguars, shop in Dubai, fund lavish weddings and so on. In the process, black money gets laundered, so to speak. The wrong idea that illicit earnings are stashed away in an accumulating hoard is a source of endless confusion. At any particular point of time, of course, some black money is held in cash. But launching a one-off strike on that cash residual does very little to stem the flow of illicit earnings. It’s like a swipe of the mop under the running tap.”

Development economist Jean Dreze had famously warned that “demonetisation in a booming economy is like shooting at the tyres of a racing car”. A year on, it seems his caution has come true. In the first quarter of the current financial year, the GDP growth slowed to a three-year low of 5.7 percent due to twin effect of goods services tax and note ban.

Firstpost did an email interview with Dreze. Here are the excerpts:

FP: It’s been a year since demonetisation. Do you see it as a success or as a failure?

Dreze: I think that it is best to be frank about demonetisation and admit that it was a goof-up. The objectives outlined by the prime minister in his speech of 8 November 2016 have certainly not been met. If there were other objectives, let him spell them out. Otherwise, let him accept that it was a blunder.

नोटबंदी गरीबों के लिये थी? जिन लोगों की जान चली गयी उनके परिवार की पीड़ा कुछ और ही कह रही है। #BJPMoneyLaunderingDay pic.twitter.com/YqkwhcxVeC

— Congress (@INCIndia) November 8, 2017

Shashi Tharoor tweets

The reasons my DP is black today, the 1st anniversary of the #DeMoDisaster: https://t.co/HydB8e3CAl #BJPMoneyLaunderingDay #Nov8BlackDay

— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) November 8, 2017

In coming to terms with the fact that the announcement made 86.4 percent of Indian currency worthless, one of the queries posed to respondents was related to whether they felt the hardships they were suffering were worth it in the battle against black money. This was the second question to be put forward to respondents across 23 states and over 400 Lok Sabha constituencies over the process of six waves.

This is the first in a series of five big questions asked after the announcement of demonetisation on 8 November, 2016. C-Voter conducted opinion polls over the course of six waves in order to map out the trajectory of opinions over time. Here is the first set of findings of the C-Voter Tracking Poll on Demonetisation.