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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Revolution that wasn't -Pratap Bhanu Mehta

Revolution that wasn't -Pratap Bhanu Mehta

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published Published on Nov 9, 2017   modified Modified on Nov 9, 2017
-The Indian Express

Demonetisation was part of a political imagination that is closer to a technocratic authoritarianism.

Revolutions are often paradoxical things. In the minds of the revolutionary, they conjure up images of radical change. But reality is more recalcitrant. It makes a fool of the revolutionary, exacerbating those very things that the revolution seeks to change. Demonetisation has turned out to be no different. It was a populist measure, done in the name of the poor. But like many revolutions done in the name of the poor, it hurt them by extracting the highest price from them.

It was a measure driven by an obsessive moralism more than a grasp of practical reality. The moralism forgot that “black” is not an inherent property of money. It is doubtful that the measure dented the complex webs through which plutocracies shield their money. Indeed, there is some evidence that new laundering mechanisms came into being as a result. It was a measure done in the name of transparency: Data that will help detect tax evasion. But citizen transparency turned out to be a shield to cloak political financing. While the citizens are being transparent to the state, political donations, through anonymous bonds, are being shielded ever more from public scrutiny. So this was a revolution in bad faith.

Demonetisation created fantasies of a cashless economy. Digital payments are up somewhat, but cash is back with a vengeance. Demonetisation was supposed to accelerate growth. It might, on a time horizon where causally attributing growth to demonetisation will be an unfalsifiable claim. But in the short run, it dented growth perhaps by as much as two percentage points. The human cost of a two percentage point slowdown in GDP growth is high. Demonetisation was supposed to be revenge on intellectuals, those know-nothings who have held India back. Turns out the predictions of most of those “know-nothings” were not far off the mark.

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The Indian Express, 8 November, 2017, http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/demonetisation-pm-modi-notes-ban-one-year-of-demonetisation-4927169/


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