Currently, the biggest concern that is been shaking the whole country (not the Congress’s Vice President’s earthquake debacle) since past a month and a half is demonetisation and seems like the RBI is in some serious competition with our star batsmen. In a matter of around 40 days, they came up with 60+ regulations, and it would be interesting to see if they can manage to hit a century soon.
From looking at the newspaper in the morning to the breaking news in the electronic media, from WhatsApp messages to Facebook and Twitter posts, from my household help to colleagues in the office, everyone seems to be obsessed with this ‘note-bandi’ thing. And why won’t they be, it is a matter of national interest after all?
Praise it or criticize it, but you cannot avoid it, and neither our highly capable electronic media will allow you to steer away listlessly. The seriousness of effects of demonetisation can be estimated just by the fact that our MSMs, CMs and Ministers bearing honesty certificates, and dear ‘didi’ of West Bengal kind of repudiated gravity to Dhulagarh communal riots (while the Spirits of 2002 Gujarat riots still continue to roam in the political galleries of this country), and are concentrating all their energies in criticising and defaming demonetisation of being anti-poor, unethical and well…shady.
At times I feel, if only our competent media and eager politicians had shown such a concern for the struggles of common fellas in the past, this nation would already have been a much better place on many fronts. All fronts if I may say!
However, the Prime Minister said that this move aims to curb black money in our economy, but ever since the start of this drive, the ‘46-year-old-young’ leader of the opposition has been shrieking literally that Indian people are honest and the real black money is stashed overseas. Well, who will know this better than him? But whenever I switch to news channels, I get to see stories of hoarders busted with millions of new and old currency denominations, this iconic dialogue crosses my mind: “मेरा भारत महान, सौ में से निन्यानवे बेईमान”!
But it would be wrong to award the tag ‘बेईमान’ to everyone, especially the common men struggling hard to make the ends meet. Talking about the struggles of a common man, demonetisation has indeed led to the rise in their problems. Some problems have been a natural result, while some have been just pretexts. Around a week more to go before the 50-day-window deadline, most people are still complaining about its inefficiet implementation. However, I didn’t notice or heard of any chaos or long queues still waiting before banks and ATMs in my city, but because the hard-working TV reporters, who literally flush off their sweat to serve the truth before us are saying so, we have no other option but to nod with them. As a concerned citizen, I had discussions with some people and tried addressing their issues in the most feasible way, however, I also found out following peculiar things.
(Disclaimer: I’m reproducing some of the episodes that I personally found bizarre. I do not intend to hurt or make fun of any individual feelings)
*** Episode 1: Charity begins at home, so the first person I talked to was our house help (my mother has strictly instructed us to not to refer the maid as maid. Euphemisms as George Carlin says) as my mother told that ‘poor she’ has been constantly complaining of her livelihood having taken a hit.
Me: दीदी, सुना है बहुत परेशानी हो रही है नोट-बंदी से आपको…
She: अरे भैया, हम गरीबों को कौन पूछता है, रोटी खाने के लाले पड़ गए हैं अब तो!
Me: लेकिन आपके पास तो BPL कार्ड है न, राशन-वाशन तो बहुत सस्ता मिलता है न?
She: और भी खर्चे होते हैं भैया, ऊपर से मेरे आदमी की कमाई और मर गई! चाय बेचता है वो, जबसे नोट-बंदी हुई है, बिक्री आधी हो गई है उसकी… पहले 800-900 कप चाय रोज़ बेच लेता था, लेकिन अभी 400-500 से ज्यादा नही हो पाता.
Me: और आपको बचता क्या है चाय में?
She: सब काट के 1-1.50 रुपए कप बचता है, बताओ अब इस मुए मोदी को उसमे भी दिक्कत है?
Me: दीदी, यानी नोट-बंदी के पहले 800 कप के हिसाब से आपके पति 1000 रुपए दिन का कमाते थे, और अभी 400 के हिसाब से 500 रुपए, और आपकी कमाई अलग (she charges 2500 rupees a month from us and works in 5 more homes), अब पहले तो ये बताओ की आप BPL कैसे हुए?
She: *poker face**does not answer me and indulges herself in work while murmuring *
***Episode 2: Last weekend, I was allotted the task of getting vegetables from the veggie-vendor outside our colony. I was required to pay ₹125 for my purchases. However, I had the cash, but I casually asked the vendor if he will take a card or PayTm transfer?
Vegetable vendor: नगद दो साहब, मशीन नहीं है.
Me: क्यों? अब तो 100-100 रुपए में दे रहे हैं बैंक वाले. आप भी लगवा लो. पैसा सीधा खाते में जायेगा…
Vendor: उसके लिये बैंक में खाता भी तो होना चाहिए…
Me: तो खुलवाया नहीं क्या अभी तक? जन-धन-योजना में खुलवा लो, उसी में आपकी POS machine भी link हो जाएगी.
Vendor: दो बार गए थे बैंक, मना कर दिए. बोले की यहाँ अब नहीं खुलते.
Me: कब गए थे? अभी?
Vendor: नहीं, 3-एक महीना पहले.
I took out my smartphone and pointed the camera at him. I asked him to tell his name, the bank’s name, and who denied him for opening the account. He asked me if what I’m going to do. I told him that I’ll send this video to Narendra Modi and complaint this with authorities in corporate office of the bank. Upon hearing this, he told me sternly that if I want vegetables, I should bring cash, pay him and leave. When I nagged him a little, he accepted that he has a bank account, and bluntly said that how he uses it is none of my business.
***Episode 3: a couple of days back, I visited my cousin who owns a garment store in the city. After some small talk, demonetisation grabbed the limelight here too. Per him, demonetisation is only going to increase the hardships and the difficulties of small businesses, such as his.
He reasoned that repaying small amounts to wholesalers was easy in cash earlier. And now that the does it in cheques, his chequebook will exhaust within a month and banks charge for issuing a new one. So it will be an extra expense for him. I advised him to use net banking instead, but he was still reluctant and cited frauds and security mishaps in net banking. After a lot of elucidating, he cracked the real reason of his resistance. Actually, he files his annual sales around 40 lakhs and accordingly pays the income tax. But in reality, his actual sales amounts just double, and so the new system will swell the amount of sales tax and income tax.
“Everyone in the market does this, where is my fault? Is it wrong to safeguard my hard-earned money?” he reasoned.
I came to know about many such events in the recent days. What I understood here is that a little ‘बेईमानी’ persists in everyone. People have to understand that if we desire a better future we need to change, we need to mend our ways for good. I often hear people admiring the way of life and state sponsored facilities in the US and other western countries, and criticizing our country by announcing इस देश का कुछ नही हो सकता! But have we ever made an effort to learn their sacrifices and level of nationalism?
When I was in high school, I studied a theory that many species including the dinosaurs extinct because they resisted to change, and those who changed, made it to the new world. In my opinion, देश नही बदल सकता जब तक हम खुद को न बदलें. So, my dear fellow Indians – the choice is ours. And I hope we’ll choose wisely!