Demand for personal loans grew 13.5 per cent in 2021, suggesting people are borrowing for basic necessities. Two-wheeler sales, a good indicator of the purchasing power of lower-middle India, were down 17.45 per cent (year-on-year) in September this year. The PMI-a pointer to growth in manufacturing and services sector-is rising every quarter.īut the indicators don’t tell the full story. Some data indicate a revival in the Indian economy. The annual growth contracted by 7.3 per cent in 2020-21. Just when the adverse impact of demonetisation on growth and jobs was receding, the economy had to be shut down because of the coronavirus pandemic. Since then, India’s masses have lurched from one financial setback to another. The point is: at the end, demonetisation hit those who wanted to derive pleasure out of the misery of the rich. Between 20, five million people lost their jobs. According to the Labour Bureau’s survey, in 2017-18 the unemployment rate hit a four-year high soon after demonetisation. And the real victims were India’s lower middle classes, the unorganised sector and the labour force employed in small and medium businesses. The Reserve Bank of India kept waiting for this windfall-currency written off is net gain for the Central bank-but in the end it was left just with the task of counting the returned cash, destroying the old notes, and spending money on replacing the outlawed currency.Īfter the initial euphoria, the clapping, screaming mob saw the reality: demonetisation had passed the rich by without hurting any of them.

With the return of the cash died the propaganda that some of the money (presumably black) will not return to the system and will be extinguished. Within no time, the entire money in circulation-around 17 lakh crore then-was back with the banks through a variety of ploys, both legal and illegal.

The promised schadenfreude never played out. Soon demonetisation turned into a Roman spectacle where the masses were the audience, demonetisation the emperor, and the rich were the gladiators fighting for their riches and entertaining everyone with their misery. His words and actions were carefully chosen to create a simple narrative: the rich and the corrupt are suffering, so the masses should ignore their own ephemeral misery. The PM is a master at setting the tone of the narrative. Around the same time, he said people were throwing away bundles of currency notes. On another, he said, those who made lots of money during the 2G scheme are queuing up for Rs 4000. At the peak of the demonetisation debate, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a variety of comments that summed up the mood of the moment.Īt one gathering, he said with a lot of joy that “ghar main shaadi hai par paise nahin hai (there is a wedding at home but there is no money.)”

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