849 Hats off to the courage and forthrightness of Shri Ramachandra Guha in his views about Demonetization of Indian Rupee

Last time we touched about Shri Ramachandra Guha, renowned Indian Historian, was while dealing with about dangers to Freedom of Expression, in our blog-post No. 815, on 4th Oct. 2016. Click to go post No. 815 at this blog. In these two months, much water has flown in all the Indian Rivers. On the 8th Nov. 2016, our beloved Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, has hit 90% of his subjects, with a surgical strike called "Demonetization of High Denomination Rs. 1000/- and Rs. 500 currency Notes", and he seems to want to rub our wounds with Iodised Salt for another 20 days, to make total 50 days, so that from the 51st day, we start getting new skins on our bruises. So far, so good, okay, welcome.

SEE THIS DECCAN CHRONICLE NEWS. Print edition dated 11.12.16, First Page. Net Link, unable to trace.

DC Correspondent, Guntur, Dec. 10

"..Angry people have gone berserk, broken glasses, chairs and furniture at banks, in the district,in recent days, but now an angry person tore a Rs. 2,000 currency note into pieces , after he was unable to get change despite repeated attempts for smaller currency.

The incident took place at Vinukonda on Saturday.

The man, however, refused to reveal his identity.

According to reports, the man came to a hotel from Vinukonda Bus Stand, to have lunch. He offered a Rs. 2,000 note to the hotel cashier to buy a meals token, but the hotel staff said that they were not in a position to give change.

He went to other hotels and shops to get change and have food, but in vain. Angry over this, he started shouting against the Government, tore th Rs. 2,000 currency note,in extreme anger, threw the pieces on to the road, and left the place.

Some onlookers came forward to offer him food, but he rejected their offer.

The incident shocked the public and they demanded immediate release of small currency notes including Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes to resolve the difficult situation.

yb-donkey's view:: To get that single piece of Rs. 2,000 note, I have been standing in ATM queues for the last 10 days. But by the time I reach near the ATM machine, the machine becomes empty, and all the people behind me, leave the place, blaming their misfortunes. At least, this man who tore the Rs. 2,000/-, got the note, which itself is something scarce. Even for that Rs. 2,000 note, though it is difficult to exchange, thousands of people are longing.

As a temporary refuge, because there was no alternative, I tried, for DEBIT CARD SCRATCHING ON A POS MACHINE, at a Departmental Stores run by Aditya Birla Group, which is in the same Street as the ATMs are. I purchased a bag of rice and some groceries there. Thereafter also, I made two or three more visits to buy food and sanitary items. I found that prices in Corporate Private Departmental Stores tend to be about 10% higher than the prices of small kirana shops in the street corners, whatever be the reason. In the particular street where I stood in ATM queues, while there are about 10 Bank ATMs, and about 50 ATMs in that Commercial locality, there are only 3/4 malls which have pos machines, including the one of Aditya Birla Group, and another of Reliance Group.

While in ATM queues, after failing to get the Rs.2,000 buck, I have tried to talk to people about some experimental purchases, using pos machines to buy groceries, but they were frank enough to express dissatisfaction about prices in Corporate Stores. They were not willing to visit the Corporate stores, as they are apprehensive of high prices. Suppose, if they follow the advice of our Information and Broadcasting Minister Shri Venkaiah Naidu, and our Chief Minister Mr. Nara Chandra Babu Naidu, there will be kilometer long queues before the Corporate Stores also. POS machines will not work because of congestion.

ROLE OF PRIVATE BANKS

I am not aware of the FORMULA OR PARAMETERS used by Reserve Bank of India to distribute the Rs. 2,000 and Rs. 500 new notes. 1) Allotment Formula for distribution among different States. 2) Allotment formula for distribution among different banks, and also apportionment formula between Private Banks and Public Sector Banks. RBI will do great justice to the People of India, if it reveals the formulas / parameters / guidelines it used for distributing new notes among States and Banks.

While ordinary hoi polloi(s) standing in Bank ATM queues all the night, find it difficult to get a single piece of Rs. 2,000, it is shocking that some persons like Gali Janardan Reddy (Mining Emperor of Bellary who is reported to have spent Rs.5.5 billion on his daughter's marriage) and Sand Mafia dons like Shri Sekhar Reddy (reported to be close to Late Jayalalithaa, Shri Pannir Selvam, and Ms. Sasikala) could get nearly 1 billion bucks of Rs. 2,000 notes. When Mr. Nara Chandra Babu Naidu, Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, arranged airlifting Rs. 2,000 notes for Andhra Pradesh, for its 13 Districts, some Districts got only Rs. 80 crore (Rs. 800 million), for all the Banks and Bank Branches in the District. That means Janardan Reddy and Sekar Reddy were able to knock away amounts higher than intended for population of entire Districts.

As Mr. Ram Babu, Trade Union Leader of Bank Employees has pointed out in some TV Channel discussions, the MASSIVE diversion of currency notes seems to have taken place either at RBI itself, or at top levels in Private Banks. It is difficult to think that Government of India or RBI will investigate into large scale diversions.

SUFFERINGS OF FOREIGN TOURISTS, AT TOURIST CENTERS

There are shocking news reports about the hardships of foreign tourists who have entered India just before demonetization, or after demonetization without knowing about the currncy crisis. Some of the foreign tourists seem to be starving, because they do not have low denomination INdian currency.

At some places, hotel owners seem to be feeding the foreign tourists, like good samaritans, pitying their condition, in an unknown country.

The article of Shri Ramachandra Guha, published in 'telegraphindia.com' two days back, reflects his great courage, and conviction. This article can be read at Click to go to http://www.telegraphindia.com/1161210/jsp/opinion/story_123842.jsp . It contains many things which I myself wanted to write, but I could not write as I was bogged down in ATM queues, and also in doing some freelance translation work to earn for my internet-connection, electricity expenses, laptop repair expenses. Hence, instead of reinventing the Wheel, or re-building Rome, I am giving a link to TelegraphIndia.Com. which contains Shri Ramachandra Guha's article.

We shall take some quotes from the article of Shri Ramachandra Guha, which we can recall and review thoroughly when time permits:

"...Consider first, the consequences of Namo's Demo for the institution that Modi himself described as "the temple of democracy" shortly after being elected prime minister, namely the Indian Parliament. It has been claimed that had Parliament been taken into confidence beforehand, black marketeers would have been forewarned. For demonetization to have an impact it had to be sudden and unanticipated. Fair enough, but why didn't the prime minister take the opportunity to explain and defend the withdrawal of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes in Parliament soon after it was announced? Since this was a move that directly affects every Indian, surely that was the least the prime minister owed the only institution that directly represents every Indian. ..."

Some Opposition MP's complained that even as the prime minister was refusing to speak in Parliament, he found time to address the crowd in a rock concert in Mumbai. I myself think that his true contempt for Parliament was manifest far more in the 'poll' he conducted using the Narendra Modi App. Getting a high 'approval rating' from his followers for demonetization may have satisfied the prime minister's vanity. Yet it further undermined the role and credibility of Parliament. By refusing to engage with elected MPs, while seeking to build a direct link with his admirers, the prime minister wilfully defiled an institution that he had himself once compared to a shrine.

yb-a-donkey: This type of courage and conviction of great degree, which Mr. Ramachandra Guha has shown, other two writers who specialise in writing about Shri Narendra Modi, -- 1) Shri Neelanjan Mukhopadhyaya (biographer of Shri Narendra Modi), and 2) Shri Akar Patel (seems to have a good access to Shri Narendra Modi to observe his methods/modes of working, when he was CM of Gujarat), could not show. Of course, they may have their own reasons for it.

But, a piece written by Shri Aakar Patel, in Deccan Chronicle.com dated 11th Dec.2016, (print edition page, adjacent to Editorial page), Click to go to DC, read the article by Aakar Patel, titled: Test of PM’s working style . This article is very reveal-atory (revealing). This article is also very important from the 'Governance of Nation' point of view, especially because we are yet to experience the remaining 30 months of the 60months tenure of Shri Modi. This subject matter of "National Governance with the oral help of bureaucrats, without reading files", to write about, even 1000 pages will not be sufficient. If properly written, this Management Book will be larger than Mr. Peter F Drucker's Treatise "Management Tasks, Responsibilities". It is not clear whether the CopyRight for this 553 page book by Peter Drucker has expired or not; anyway a free ebook is available for download on internet. Those who are interested to download the pdf, and study it, can do it by googling.

Courtesy above article of Shri Aakar Patel, from Deccan Chronicle:
Mr Modi also revealed that he was a “good listener” and was able to absorb what was being said to him well. When I heard him say this I thought it made him vulnerable to the bureaucrats he was trusting because he is dependent and can be fed as much or as little as the officer wants him to know. In the style of working as Mr Modi describes it, a complex matter that occupies dozens and perhaps hundreds of pages in files is reduced to an oral summary. It is possible that because of lack of time or because the issue is overly complex, the oral summary is simplistic.

"... On the basis of this summary, Mr Modi takes a decision and this is then executed through the administration. This style seems to have worked well for Mr Modi because he is thought of as being a good chief minister in his 12 years in Gujarat. These days, however, I have been again thinking about Mr Modi’s style of taking input in this form when taking decisions. That is because the Supreme Court is asking critical questions about the way in which the demonetisation policy was rolled out. The court wants to know if the policy was planned properly, or a decision was taken “just like that” when Mr Modi scrapped Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes on November 8. ..."

"...Another important thing he revealed was how he actually worked. Mr Modi said he doesn’t read files. This I found to be unusual in someone who is so decisive because one needs full control over the subject if one is eager to take big decisions. But Mr Modi says he cannot govern through “academics studies (sic)” and instead asks his officers to summarise all issues for him, and brief him orally. They are expected to go through the file and tell him, as he put it, “yeh masla hai kya”. He said he had the capacity to figure out the delicate contours of these issues without actually reading about them. He said this is because “mera itna grasping tha”. ..."

Our next blog-post will be on the subject of "National Governance with the oral help of bureaucrats, without reading files". There are also, two Hindi phrases used by Shri Aakar Patel in his article "Note Ban, test of PM's working style", 1) "yeh masla hai kyA" (masla= problem, question, issue) approx. English: What is this problem? , and 2) "MErA itnA grasping thA" (Approx. English: I had so much understanding).

To continue. सशेष. ఇంకా ఉంది.