The Age of Kali: From Note-ban to Tumpocracy

These have been remarkable last few weeks. Somebody, who nobody thought could even win the Republican Presidential nomination, won the race to the White House. And in an unprecedented move, the Indian Prime Minister Modi banned Rupees 500 and 1000 notes in an alleged effort to curb black money. Maybe it was not so unprecedented as another Indian Prime Minister with similar first two letters MO, Morarji Desai has done it before. But the way the move has sent the people into a tailspin is certainly unprecedented. Here is my take on the two earth-shattering events:

Earth-shattering event # 1-Trump's Victory:

To me personally, the victory didn't come as a surprise. I had expected Trump to win by a landslide. That is not because I thought he was more deserving for the Oval Office than the former first lady but because he was just what the Americans seemed to want at this moment. Top among that being a change in the Democratic way of governance. Anti-incumbency, as we call this factor in India, certainly played on people's mind. They wanted someone who could talk straight on sensitive issues like security. Someone who could call a spade a spade and Islamic Terrorism as Islamic Terrorism. Donald Trump has some weird ideas like building a wall and banning Muslims from the USA but he was able to connect with the popular opinion. The popular opinion wants jobs to be created and they feel that the best way to do it is to stop jobs from going outside the American Shores, something that Trump spoke a lot about during his campaign. Popular opinion wanted to get rid of the illegal immigrants, something which the Hillary campaign was making nice about. Trump seemed tough on the issue of illegal immigration from the beginning even though his toughness was symbolised by the great wall he wants to build. Popular opinion would never want taxes to increase. Trump always supported reduction of taxes. Popular opinion would want to ban people whose religion has been turned into the forum for conducting mass murders in the name of holy war. Trump spoke vociferously on Terrorism and added the adjective 'Islamic' before it, something which his opponents shied away from doing. Trump said all the politically incorrect things but people still gave him a chance because they were able to connect with him nevertheless. Hillary said all the politically correct things but people couldn't trust her enough to let her win. Reminds me of a quote from Emerson, "What you are speaks so loudly in my ears, I cannot hear what you say". 

Hillary, despite all her grace, seemed to people superficial. Hillary, for the people, meant status quo. Even if she talked about equality, justice and all the other American values that people around the world love, she couldn't convince people that she would be different from the Obama administration. Her campaign was all about painting Trump as some sort of Voldemort who would become the Dark Lord and unleash hell on earth. The media in the US bashed Trump in one tune as divisive, disruptive and dorky. But all this helped Trump eventually. Even though people were hearing bad things about Trump on T.V., they were hearing about him nevertheless. People are strange creatures. They sometimes do exactly what they are asked not to. As much as people attract what they expect, people also attract what they fear. The same thing happened to the media and all the good samaritans who went around educating the innocent citizens about the risks of a Trump Presidency. I can't wait to see Michael Moore's TrumpLand which is a documentary film about the same subject.

People do crazy things when they are angry and scared. They trust the man who may be politically incorrect but speaks their mind. If there is anything to learn from Trump's victory, it is this: Populism is in. It is so, so in!

Earth-shattering event #2: Modi's Note-ban

Modi's 10 minutes short film released on Nov the 8th is and will most likely always be the highest grossing blockbuster ever. In the first week itself, the collections were as high as $22 billion. According to Modi, the move will mean curbing Black money hoarding and finally result in the end of corruption as we know it. But is it one more of the rhetorics that he is so famous for or does it really mean something? 

In 2014 during an interaction session, Raghuram Rajan, the former RBI governor, was asked a question by an audience member regarding demonetisation. Rajan said, "My sense is the clever find ways around it. They find ways to divide up their hoard into many smaller pieces,” He reasoned that the need of the hour was to focus the incentives that generate and retain black money. Adding that most of the black money might be stocked in the form of gold, which would make it harder for the administration to track or catch.

Long story cut short is that Rajan thought that demonetisation was a stupid idea and perhaps this is why he was replaced by a puppeteering governor before Modi made the big announcement. But try telling that to a Modi supporter and you are likely to be charged with allegations of being anti-national. A fear which has led to many celebs also forcefully supporting the irrational move. I am not going to cite Virat Kohli or Aamir Khan as examples here. Kohli needs to stay in the team as captain and Khan wouldn't want another controversy after what he said regarding intolerance. Khan's movie is coming soon as well. 

Speaking one's mind has become a thing of the past, it seems. So you have news channels spreading false propaganda about the illusionary benefits of the note-ban. They show blind Modi-bhakts who go so far as to compare standing in long queues to soldiers standing on the borders. I have heard some specially whacky ideas like how the reason behind the long queues is the community of drunkards who need to withdraw cash daily to suffice their thirst. Or, if Modi's 96 year old mom can stand in the queue, why can't we? 

About 50 people have died due to standing in the never-ending lines, the bhakts defend it by calling it what George Bush senior called the killing of innocent civilians in Iraq- collateral damage. As though we are supposed to wage war for our own bloody money. You wouldn't find the VIPs standing in the queues around the country. These are common men and women who have as much to do with corruption as Rajpal Yadav has to do with terrorism. What Modi has essentially done is to take an insensitive step that has meant harassing millions of people just to satisfy his own idiosyncrasy. But maybe, it is not so idiosyncratic after all. Millions were spent in the elections to bring Modi to power, it's time to get the money back by doing what is nothing less than daylight robbery. 

Think about it, the government talks of the hoarding of 500-1000 notes to justify the note-ban, what's the guarantee that it won't use the same logic to ban the new 2000 and 500 rupee notes a year or two later? And what's the guarantee that the new notes won't be duplicated? I have seen the 2000 rupee notes and my first impression was that they are fake. It seemed like a note anybody could duplicate. The kind of note that as children one bought at grocery stores for 25 paise. There is even news that the 2000 rupee notes fade in colour. But one government official justified it saying, if the colour doesn't fade, the note isn't original.

Well! 

The bottomline is that the people in India are being taken for granted. They are being taken for a ride by a government that has no sympathy or care about the inconvenience that has been caused to them due to this obnoxious step. People, I am sure, are now counting the days left in this administration's term. Once the election time comes, they will have their revenge for every minute wasted, for every sweat dropped, and for all the deaths this government has caused.