As the world fretted over whether the US is going to be presided by a corrupt woman or a man who is stupider than his Disney namesake, the Indian PM Narendra Modi made an announcement at 8pm on 8/11/2016 that put the entire nation in a frenzy the way only a World Cup victory or a Rahul Gandhi joke can.
With effect from 9/11/2016, the present ₹500 and ₹1000 notes in your house will useless as they are being replaced by new ₹500 and ₹2000 notes. In order to facilitate this change, banks will be closed on 9th, and 10th onwards, you will have to deposit all your ₹500 and ₹1000 notes in the bank. Then the bank staff will swim in them for a couple of hours like we see in Richie Rich and exchange it for you.
This is to crack down on people with black money. Once you deposit money into your account, that money comes automatically under the radar of the government. If the money doesn’t corroborate with your tax returns, that’s when you’re supposed to get red in the face and say “This is a conspiracy by the opposition party!! My money is whiter than Donald Trump’s immigration policy!” You can’t even try to bribe someone with a few thousands to get your job done because… you know.
The Narendra Modi government has been quite focused in its efforts towards eradicating black money in myriad ways unlike it’s previous government, whose only white thing was an Italian woman.
All in all, it is a brilliant move by our PM, for a number of reasons. The element of surprise, coupled with the ironing out of the finer details, such as restrictions on exchange, withdrawal, places where it can and cannot be done for the common man, poses an insurmountable challenge to possessers of black money.
The challenge of this operation, like any other in India, lies in size and scale. By declaring all notes of 500 and 1000 not legal tender anymore, this move affects virtually everyone from all classes of society. The circulation of money will be particularly suffocated among the lower classes because of two reasons -one, that some of them aren’t part of the banking system, and two, that the regular use of plastic money and cashless transactions hasn’t pervaded this section yet. It is more for these people that the PM has announced a slew of conditions and regulations for using and exchanging their existing notes, in places such as government hospitals, ticket booking counters, etc.
In the early hours of this news, speculation is galore, like it always is. But the following conclusions are beyond speculation. This is a well thought out strategy by Modi. Although it will cause short term inconveniences, the long term benefits are immeasurable (which means it’s a very big number). It is the single biggest crack down on black money in the history of our nation, and a necessary one, to see any real progress. No matter how much water you fill, if the bucket has a hole, it will ever fill to the fullest.
On a concluding note, any black money that anyone is looking to dispose off, I’d be happy to accept it so that I can burn it and quote the Joker (“it’s not about the money. It’s about sending a message”). Yes, I’m a Batman fan. How did you figure?
