"Surgical Strike" On Indian Currency Notes. #MirMak

"Surgical Strike" On Indian Currency Notes. #MirMak

Few weeks ago, the second day after the Indian PM announced that Rs 500 and 1000 notes are deemed useless on the night of November 8th, i had written an article immediately based on my foresight of economy that India will face a monetary crisis. Well ladies and gentlemen, i did not think that it would happen this quickly but it has. Modi and his ad hoc policies stem from a mindset which only thinks in an irrational manner, an authoritative and a imposing manner where it leaves me thinking about Hitler and his policies of ruling over millions with "I am always right mentality"....

Deeming 86% of the cash notes in circulation useless overnight is nothing but a policy of irrationality. Women in India have been affected the most because the cornerstone of India's cash economy are women. And to top it all, only 32% of Indian women have an account at the bank because of either illiteracy or mistrust in financial institutions, so they earn in small bills and keep their savings in cash at home. Out of a 501 million workforce and women being the backbone of cash economy for small transactions, it is nothing but a paralyzing moment for them to travel hundreds of miles to the banks that are refusing to entertain them. To add insult to the injury, the winter wedding season of India is here as well which thrives on cash and smaller transactions but the Modi economic surgical strike has surgically dissected the poor people from their daily activities.

Modi's decision of wiping out 23 billion notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1000, yes 23 billion of them, reminds me of a similar move by another dictator where in 2009, in North Korea. Within weeks it wiped out the private sector investment of its capital, had the food prices shoot up by 30 folds, and then came the widespread hunger. India seems to have everything on track to face such a crisis. Same thing had happened in 1987 in Burma where the denomination of their currency Kyat was changed and exactly the same crisis took place which they have not been able to recover from even 3 decades later. It had wiped out the entire private sector savings into oblivion. Poverty rose to an unprecedented level. Food prices were not affordable even for the middle class and widespread riots broke out.

In a country of 1.3 billion people and just 400 million bank accounts with many being multiple accounts of the same family and in many cases several accounts of the same business entity, in a country where the value of transactions of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 equals to 12% of the GDP, the actual economic growth has to slow down starting immediately to say the least. On the worst side, i see this crisis to continue and gain pace where a common Indian will not even be able to afford even basic food items. This should never happen to any nation, animosity aside, enmity separated from emotions, the common people of any country should not suffer because of the decisions of their maniacal leader, and maniacal Modi has proven to be, surgically and otherwise.