There could be only two possible reasons why Prime Minister Modi avoided coming to parliament and face debate on demonetisation. One, he did not have courage to face it when many drawbacks of his ill-conceived, capricious decision were tumbling out and he chose the path of “strategic retreat”. Wise on his part since particularly in Rajya Sabha, where extremely knowledgeable and experienced parliamentarians exposed the fallacies of this move one after the other, he would have been literally skinned. BJP-planted thugs on social media may say that this was to avoid unnecessary confrontation and that PM has the authority to deputy finance minister to reply the debate. But it is not only nonsensical, it is outrageous too.

The second reason could be his total disrespect to democratic norms and a clear display of dictatorial mindset. It was first seen during Gujarat riots, which was nothing but brutal genocide. Supreme Court openly took a stand against it and then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Bajpai – his own senior colleague in the party – despondently reminded him of Rajdharma. Years have passed but there is no change in attitude and approach after he becoming Prime Minister.

It is ergo, stupid on our part to expect that he would be compassionate with crores of Indians standing in serpentine queues outside Banks and post offices. In fact, he is taking sadistic pleasure in cracking cheap jokes on their agonies in music concerts.

Several economists of national/international repute have already analysed what a complete sham this demonetization is, how it has wrecked rural economy, how the middle and lower middle classes in metro cities are living on the edge and how a complete disaster it is going to be in the long run. I am not an economist but I do have sufficient brains to understand that to flush out three to four lakh crores of black money stashed in cash, it is outright foolish to put to stake a twenty two trillion dollars economy. It is juvenile to take such huge disruptive step to stop terrorist funding when only a miniscule 0.0028 % of the currency in circulation is counterfeit by RBIs own admission and even a school child would understand the simple arithmetic that it would take not less than seven months to print approximately 22 billion notes taken out of circulation, even if RBIs printing press operates at 100% capacity.

What is this if not a rape of the economy? Modi worshipers may say whatever they want and pounce on any voice raised against it, fact remains that the queues are not ending and the patience of the people will soon run out. It will be Modi and Modi alone who will carry the responsibility of the anarchy that will follow. Modi worshippers would do well to understand that sucking their thumb endlessly will never secrete and produce milk. And for heaven’s sake stop giving us sermons of nationalism. A very famous British Author and thinker from 18th century Samuel Johnson said, “The difference between declared and undeclared emergency is that you feel patriotic in undeclared emergency”. I am in public life for three decades. I do not understand how standing in a queue for several hours to withdraw or exchange my own hard earned money is any yardstick to measure my patriotism. Reason and logic has no place in BJP’s ideology. Historically, no fascist party in the world had it. It is also proven historically that fascism finally is defeated. Parroting Modi paeans has today become a qualification to decide if you love your country or are an anti national. These parrots will soon be silenced by either rampaging mobs or by their own masters once they become a liability.

Dr. Jitendra Awhad

Reminder: Just have a look at what Supreme Court has to say about prevailing circumstances