The Art of Rhetoric

By Rudraksh Lakra
On 8th November 2016, Prime Minister Modi took to address the nation in an unscheduled live event,
during this event it was announced, that ₹500 and ₹1000 banknotes would no longer be the legal
tender from midnight.

During Modi's speech, that night Modi declared, "Corruption and black money are diseases rooted in
this country, they are obstacles to our success”. The Government of India declared a war on
corruption, black money, and counterfeit notes.

In regards to ending corruption and black money circulation, the move was a colossal failure; on
December 2016, the Attorney-General of India, Mukul Rohatgi, had informed the Supreme Court that
the government did not expect more than 80% of the banned currency to be back in the bank, the
remaining 20% was black money and was to extinguished, yet by August 2017, 99% of the banned
currency had been deposited in banks, which meant not only was objective of eradicating black
money unfulfilled but rather as courtesy by The Government, 3 lakh crore black money was turned
into white.

The next target of the war undertaken by our government was to eradicate the supply of counterfeits
currency from the country, the rationale for this measure was based on, the assertion by the
Government of India that 40% of the currency in supply was fake, and this fraud currency was used to
fund illicit dealings. After demonetization, only 0.0035% of the banknotes were found to be fake,
which implied that not only the issue of forgeries was inconsequential, but the actual stat was bloated
to legitimize demonetization.

While the action by the government failed to, bring any negative effect to the targets it had
undertaken, its effect was felt by the populace, who as always bore the real burden of Government
missteps. The Government was ill-prepared carry out the exchange of banned currency, for starters for
at least a month in most bank branch there was a dearth of new currency, which leads to huge lines
and inconvenience, added to this there was a constant change in rules and regulation, which created a
convoluted mess of what already was cluster fuck, blunder. Demonetization lead to the stock market
decline, a decline in general in that quarter for all business sectors, drivers couldn’t pay toll, farmers
didn’t have enough money to buy seeds and implements, the industrial production output had its
sharpest decline in 3 years, the GDP growth rate was shaved by almost a point and around 100 deaths
have been linked to demonetization.

As showcased above the Government had announced demonetization with three objectives countering
corruption, black money, and counterfeit notes, the Government failed on all these grounds, what
India did is to commit a massive theft of people's property without even the pretence of due process,
without any gains to show for it. All that the Great Grand Man of India has done is to act as a tyrant,
to bring havoc by this measure which was carried out without a proper prior study, and a proper
execution plan.

Yet irrespective of unsurmountable, concrete evidence, we can’t hold our government responsible,
and accountable for this atrocity. Modi’s government now, with another set of rhetoric’s has hit a
reset button on the objectives of demonetization, an analysis could be carried out how the new
objectives haven’t been met either or they are not worth the cost; however, none of that matter in the
post-truth world we inhabit, responsibility for wrong cannot exist, where the reality itself can be
distorted and shifted by swaying the masses.