A Deficit of Empathy

On Nov 8^th 2016, the government of India pulled the plug on circulated currency in India, in a massive ‘demonetization’ move.  Within 4 hour of its announcement by Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi, 86% of the circulated currency in 500 and 1000 denomination became illegal tender.  People were asked to exchange the old currency with the new ones at the bank.  It sent shock waves across the country where initial disbelief transformed into a deep sense of insecurity akin to the feeling of the rug pulled from under the feet.  As people came to terms with the crushing reality of being without cash, and hence a severe disruption in their lives, they looked up to the government to provide a reasonable explanation for the move.  The initial explanation given to people was to shock the black marketers and flush out black money from the economy instantaneously.  A promise was made to return to normalcy within 3 days.  PM Modi went on to ask for more and more days, e.g. 50 days for normalizing the situation as the days passed by.  With no money at hand, or in ATMs, or in banks, the panic was controlled only by false and feel-good rhetoric of government portraying the move as beneficial to even the poorest.  However, as we shall see, nothing is farther from truth.  The only overbearing truth is that it was an attack on the poor and underprivileged, wiping out whatever savings they had, and getting the last penny from the poorest person and household in India.  The move was like artificial famines created by British in colonized India that caused millions of people to die.  The demonetization is the modern-day famine which has forced people to beg for their own money from banks. 

The vacuous narrative of demonetization since then has morphed from recovering black money to going to a cashless economy; in the process going through intermediary stages like checking counterfeit currency, tackling terrorism, getting money for the poor.  Each premise brought forward by Modi and its fawning government is false.  The normalization of the currency situation is now being realized as practically a year away if not more.  The RBI was completely under-prepared for such move as it had not printed enough currency in advance to replace the withdrawn currency.  Even now, their aim is to replenish only 40% of the withdrawn currency, considering practical limitations of the minting press.  With such an incredibly botched execution and myopic view of the aftermath of such move, one can only imagine the chaos and devastation this move has created in a country that runs on cash, and millions of people are dependent for their survival only on cash, as they do not have bank accounts or plastic money.  In one shot the poorest of India were pushed back centuries economically as they were forced to adopt the age-old barter system for their survival, as there was no new currency readily available for exchange.  The havoc the demonetization move has caused is increasingly becoming apparent as days pass by.  Hailed as “surgical strike,” the very phrase is an oxymoron in this context, as surgical strike by definition is a precise operation directed at a few defaulters swiftly, e.g. Income Tax (IT) department raids, but this was aimed at everybody, punishing everybody for a long time to come. 

Almost all 18 lakh crores worth of money that was withdrawn has been returned for exchange with the new currency – so all white money; and the so-called attack on black money simply petered out.  It was also a complete reversal of the election promise of bringing black money stashed abroad and depositing it in people’s accounts.  Instead, the foreign havens of black money were left untouched and the poor and the common man was required to cough up every single penny he had to the banks.  The age-old custom of housewives saving money for their own financial protection or for the rainy day was asundered as all money saved needed to be declared.  With domestic violence and insecurity prevalent in India, especially for women, this was a knell blow.  Suddenly, everybody became a suspect unless they furnished the certificate of innocence by complying with ever-changing rules, and depositing last penny they had to the bank.  In the midst of all this, the big industrialists continue to enjoy the channels of their wealth transfer of their ill-gotten money; none of those channels (e.g. tax-loopholes) are under attack.  Real black money is not the hard cash, but the channels that allow powerful people and corporations to hoard money and buy assets.  A case in the point is Patanjali that runs business worth thousands of crores but pays nothing in taxes as it is registered as a charitable trust.  This is where real black money is, and not in common man’s pockets.  Anybody with real black money does not go to ATMs, it is the common man who stands in the queue of ATMs and banks.  The common man is now rendered vulnerable to the whims of capricious banker (who suddenly have this new-found power over people) even to get his own hard-earned money.  In fact, the introduction of denomination of 2000 makes hoarding of black money much easier once the dust settles.  A move very contrary to the avowed agenda of cleaning black money.  Insiders of BJP were already aware of the move, and most black money holders who are normally well-connected in the power circles had already exchanged their currency before even the announcement was made.  This reflected in the fact that the ministers and politicians of BJP including the Finance Minister at this hour of extreme crisis were happily spending hundreds of crores on wedding of their children – a cruel joke on common mass who had their weddings stalled or cancelled due to shortage of currency.  From where did they get so much money in new currency to spend on weddings?

In recent days, many hawala arrests show the stash of new currency they had, it does not take too much imagination to figure out how these people had so much cash when the average citizenry was undergoing insufferable pains due to lack of cash.  A new black market was already in place for the new currency.  Curbing black money was just a false premise of this move, as black money can be controlled only when the channels of black money are controlled; they however remain untouched as those with real black money have powerful links or are powerful people.  According to IT department’s own admission, only 6% of the black money was in hard cash, for which the entire population was made bereft of cash.  Most hoarders of black money are well connected to convert all their black money into white money, and that’s what they did, taking full advantage of the connections and loopholes in the system.    

Within days of this boondoggle, people were caught with counterfeit notes of the new currency.  The only way to counter counterfeit currency is through technology as done in advanced countries and phasing out old notes.  Is this an effective counter-terrorism policy?  Will not the terror organization adapt to the new currency sooner than later, with all their channels intact?  Does this not inadvertently show a complete failure of military and intelligence agencies?  Do they have to be dependent on moves like this to get help in doing their jobs?  The answer is obviously NO, as these agencies are capable of tackling terrorism and tracking flow of money to the terror cells.  That’s why it is a completely false premise.  Even if there was an iota of truth in it, is it worth for the entire population to suffer so humiliatingly, forcing many lives and small businesses to come to a grinding halt?  Standing in line for one’s own money is a direct attack on fundamental right to property and in no way is nationalism by any standard.  Modi has proved to be the proverbial scoundrel who finds his last refuge in nationalism.  The tone-deafness of this government has been unprecedented, rationalizing death of the poor as sacrifice for the nation; an ultimate sacrifice without the country being at war; without any cause let alone a worthy one.  So far more than 100 people have died standing in queues to get their own money.  People have trampled over dead body in the queue only to get their money – such depravity can be caused only by extreme desperation for survival.  Without a war or a fight against a foreign occupier, every life lost is a black mark on government’s tenure; there should be no reason for a citizen to lose life, let alone in withdrawing his own money.  The very sanctity of life has been diluted and commodified by this government. 

Cashless economy is a wet dream of financiers and the ruling class where they have complete control of all money; the common man never gets to see his money in real, and that money is up for gambling in stocks and bonds to make obscene profits for the rich and the powerful.  There is a strong resistance to cashless economy in countries like the US where the awareness about dangers of cashless economy is relatively high.  Even the US economy is only 47% cashless, and that with a very strong infrastructure that has deep penetration in the country, even in the remotest areas.  India is far away from that basic condition and on top of it has minimal or no laws for frauds in online transactions.  Cashless transactions are going to bring a windfall in profits to online transaction companies who charge commission on every transaction.  It is not hard to see who is going to benefit from this push.  The big industrial houses that have bank loans worth lakhs of crores are being let off with a slap on their wrists, most of their loans being written off or eased.  There is no account of the loaned sum; when Raghuram Rajan started going after such institutions and industrial bigwigs, and asked such industrial houses to declare bankruptcy, he was shown the way out.  The deficit is being compensated by getting money from average Indians.  This is nothing short of day-time robbery by the government, with no intention of doing anything for the poor from the collected monies.  It is just a massive transfer of wealth from poor to rich, and is unprecedented in post-independence India.  

Modi is talking about cashless economy in a country where 80 – 90% of the economy runs on cash, where 600 million people do not have bank account, where only 2% of the population has plastic money, where the largest workforce is in the informal sector that pays in cash, where the penetration of banking in rural areas is still pretty weak, where nearly 70% of the population still resides in villages where banks are kilometers away and no ATM to speak of, where there are more ATMs in Delhi than the entire state of Rajasthan, where half of the ATMs in small town are dysfunctional, where literacy rate is around 50% across the nation, the list is endless.  This message at best comes across as a most cruel and brutal joke pulled upon the common man, where a very basic infrastructure to lead even a hygienic life is absent, let alone a fulfilled life where the basic needs of life are satisfied.  It has plunged the country into a financial chaos disrupting a cash based economy due to lack of money.  Even medium to big businesses have been affected as stock market is falling, and the GDP is expected to fall by 2 – 3%.  This will have a devastating effect on the Indian workforce, 80% of which is employed in the informal sector completely dependent on cash.   

Endless desperation, poverty, extreme economic insecurity, a society divided on caste, religion and now very much class are perfect breeding grounds for demagoguery.  Modi not only understands this but has exploited the desperation of people to give them false hopes and make false promises.  With enduring difficult times and no hope for a decent future, demagoguery provides a much-needed fodder for the mind that desperately longs for a glimmer of hope.  That glimmer of hope is fast fading as the euphoria of demonetization has started to die and ugly reality is in the face of people.  With a brutal past record, dictatorial style of governance at the center, and monumental failure on all fronts be it trade, foreign policy or domestic issues, the only way Modi still enjoys vast support can be understood through just one metric – his underlying agenda of Hindutva.  The agenda of Hindutva that was garbed in the agenda of development is pretty much exposed now.  The development agenda was only a façade to bamboozle people; the façade has already been torn down.  There has been no development in any sector by this government; some development that happened in the initial days was a remnant of the previous government’s economic and social programs.  Modi supporters largely comprise people who are either Hindu supremacists or harbor deep hatred towards Muslims, Christians and other minorities.  They secretly admire Modi for the genocide of Muslims in 2002 in Gujarat, and wish for the establishment of the Hindu nation.  The word ‘secular’ has been vandalized with a concerted attack on it; the secular ethos of the country gets constantly trampled by vociferous and violent supporters of Modi.  In combination with economic despair, this has given rise to the most lumpen elements of the society who have become the storm troopers of Modi.  Imbibing a vicarious sense of power in resonating with Modi’s sentiments, it has allowed them to perpetrate verbal and physical violence with impunity on anybody who disagrees with Modi and his cronies.  The cyber cells in South East Asia established by BJP provide the ideological backbone for such elements by constantly spewing propaganda and hate online.

Accelerated crony capitalism is underway in the name of false nationalism, hoodwinking the populace with false promises and empty rhetoric.  Jingoism has been made the main national narrative where everybody is supposed to wear nationalism on his sleeve.  If one opposes government’s policies one is condemned as anti-national; genuine criticism of armed forces has become off-limits, it is only to be revered and eulogized in public; it is being used for political gains.  Fascism has already arrived in India, the ruling class has merged in no uncertain terms with the corporate class, a symbiosis for mutual benefit.  The bourgeois middle class has found yet another way through demonetization to humiliate and dehumanize the working poor.  Endless support of demonetization on whatsApp and other social media, tasteless jokes mocking the poor and asking them to do online and mobile banking are simply mind-numbing.  The moneyed, privileged class has turned a blind eye to the incredible, unnecessary, outrageous and uncalled for suffering of the poor by the move for demonetization.  With demonetization, India has sharpened and solidified the divisions between haves and have-nots.  After introducing fault-lines of religion and caste between the people, the BJP comes up with a masterstroke of dividing the people on class.  The underlying class consciousness does not allow class members of the economically powerful class to empathize with class members of the weaker class, it’s an incessant conflict; the conflict that has written pages of modern human history.  The weaker class made to realize as have-nots in a brazen and most brutal way may tip the scale of upcoming assembly elections even if the BJP might think it has bankrupted the opposition parties that need cash for contesting elections.   

What is heart-wrenching in all this is that despite strong evidence against the demonetization move as described above, there exists a deficit of empathy; not only in the high-handedness of the government where Modi has refused to debate in Parliament (making a mockery of democracy), but also in the arrogant and insensitive attitude of the Indian urban elite for whom the poor are just non-existent or at best an annoyance and a blot on the shiny, online and corporate India.  The queues and suffering just don’t register in the minds of a vast majority of Indian elite who cannot help wondering why the poor are facing problems despite online and mobile options of banking!  This is just beyond outrageous; characterizes a moral depravity that dehumanizes its fellow human beings for being underprivileged.  Hard core Modi bhakts (hero-worshippers) still continue to sell demonetization, the protracted suffering of people has not made any dent in their conscience; a flight of reason, extreme aversion to facts and details, an incapacity to think, blind faith in rhetoric and a visceral connection to Modi has caused them to act in ways that has already caused tremendous harm to camaraderie and social cohesiveness that build empathy for the fellow members of society.  The moral content of any society lies in empathy as that allows people to stand with and for each other in times of crisis.  But that seems to be absent.  To quote from Bob Dylan’s song, “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall;" the emotive rendition of which seared through the titled, anointed glitterati of the Nobel ceremony this year, presented the truth in its starkest form and very much sums up the apathy in the Indian bourgeois class – “Where hunger is ugly, and souls are forgotten.”