 "From launderers and loopholes to Modi's mother: How global media covered demonetisation")
The Modi government's demonetisation move has caused heartburn at home with the ever changing rules regarding withdrawal and exchange of currency notes, and the long serpentine lines outside banks and ATMs. However, the foreign media's coverage of what the government touts to be a landmark anti-black money policy has not been very positive.
Across the board, major publications around the world have highlighted the hardships caused to the common man ever since the currency devaluation measure came into effect.
Inadequate planning
By the time the ATMs came around to being open, albeit not all and with nowhere near the capacity required to serve all the cash-strapped people, the New York Times ran a piece on the rush for new currency notes. On the ground the global daily captured the lack of preparedness on the part of the government, the to-be recalibrated ATMs, and, most importantly the anger of the people. "I am so angry at the lack of planning on the part of the government before taking such an enormous step," an office executive waiting outside a bank in the Delhi suburb of Saket to told NYT. The article covered what we, at ground zero, have become all too used to in the last few days: ATMs running out of cash, long queues, scuffles breaking out between exasperated people, and the government's call for patience given the magnitude of the operation.
BBC also reported on the cash shortage at banks as people queued up to deal with the surprise announcement by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The report mentioned scuffles which broke out at places as people jostled to get legal currency in their pockets, citing bank staff which told the British news organisation how the police had to break up a few scuffles here and there. People who spoke to BBC highlighted their personal hardships, brought on by the move and the overwhelming of the country's banking system. A student from Delhi University told BBC: "I wish they had a simpler system for students. I desperately need cash to pay my rent and buy books and food." The prevalent mood, right after last week's announcement, among at least the urban elite of the country was described best by: "The top trend on Twitter India has been #CashCleanUp with tweets ranging from the frustrated to the humorous, as many Indians came to terms with the fact that much of their day would be spent in queues." However, the report did highlight that low-income people, who were not part of the electronic or digital economy, had been hit hard.
The common theme, as seen across Indian papers and channels too, was that the people on the street were not questioning the motive of the sudden announcement, but they were exasperated, and often angry by the way the plan was carried out.
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Good, bad, ineffective?
The Washington Post piece on the decision looked at how effective the move would be. Starting off with the rush among the common folk for new currency notes, the report moved on to how experts were of the opinion that demonetisation would impact wealthy real estate professionals, doctors and lawyers, or any group of people who receive payments and remuneration in cash and do not report it. The report also moved away from the singular coverage of anger and frustration, instead pointing out that some of the folks lined up in queues outside banks and ATMs were praising the Modi government’s move and did consider it to be a blow against black money. The piece described this support as "the same populist, anti-elite fervour that drove US voters to Donald Trump and UK voters to Brexit".
However, the report did highlight that experts and economists were not unanimous in their support for the scheme. Quoting Neeraj Hatekar, director of the economics department at the University of Mumbai, the report explained that the demonetisation programme would be good in ridding the system of counterfeit bills but inadequate when it came to dealing with the country's black money economy, which Hatekar explained was mainly focused in real estate and gold.
An opinion piece in the UK's The Guardian was the most critical of the demonetisation move. Written by Jayati Ghosh, a professor of economics at the Jawaharlal Nehru university, for the British publication, the piece described the move as "smoke and mirrors stuff" and "hugely destabilising".
The government has maintained that the move had to be initiated in a sudden and abrupt manner to prevent cash hoarders from finding loopholes, like buying into assets like gold. However, Ghosh argues that this a poor argument on the government's part, adding that demonetisation could have been applied in a time-bound manner and then the authorities could have tracked large transactions. Further, Ghosh contends that since only a small amount of illicit funds, or black money, is kept as cash, with most of it being used to buy property, gold and stocks, demonetisation was likely to effect only a "tiny fraction" of illicit funds. The other problem, according to the economics professor, was that the move did nothing to curtail the means by which such funds were accrued: "... Inaccurate invoicing by companies, under-reporting of sales values and overstating costs, reporting non-existent transactions...."
Another piece from BBC highlighted how those who had amassed ill-gotten wealth were busy trying to find loopholes, even as honest people were struggling to deal with the impact of the move. The report highlighted that some people were trying to figure out how to convert their now defunct currency notes into goods or gold. The piece retells how a mobile shop owner in Delhi was offered Rs 30 lakh in cash by a man offering to buyout his stock of iPhones. Or how a politician in Bihar decided to convert Rs 2 crore into gold by buying ornaments at a jewellery shop. Further, it also talked about how the defunct notes were being bought up by launderers at a premium.
It's getting personal, and the foreigners know it
While the Opposition has been critical of the demonetisation scheme from the start, over its effectiveness and the intention behind it, things got personal on Thursday when the prime minister's mother, 96-year-old Heeraben also queued up like everyone else at a bank in Gandhinagar, Gujarat. Images of Heeraben in a wheel-chair, going through the necessary procedures which most of us are all too familiar with by now, were picked up by news agencies across the country.
The UK's DailyMail also picked up the story, and described how the opposition decided to get personal about the affair. The report quoted senior Congress leaders saying that the prime minister was not fulfilling his duties as a son if he was allowing his aged mother to face hardships.