The move by the
government to demonetize Rs.500 and Rs.1000 notes by replacing them with new
Rs.500 and Rs.2000 notes has taken the country by surprise. This movement
rendered everyone astonished as this was a momentous unexpected decision
declared without any prior information in the eve of 8th November 2016 at 20:15
hours addressed by honorable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi.
Post announcement the
people panicked queued in front of the banks. The rural citizens in the bank
were ambiguous about the process of depositing their currency in the bank. In a
rural area of Lucknow around 25 kilometers away from the city I found a 65
years old man who returned from the bank failing to deposit his currency
because he did not have any bank account. It was also seen that bank officials
were not supportive to needy customers and according to a report by DNAINDIA,
27 public sector bank employees were dismissed on the grounds of irregularities
post demonetization.
Due to this step,
adverse impact on people’s daily lives especially the rural population in Uttar
Pradesh were amongst the worst sufferers due to the absence of banks. The rural
population which was already largely dependent on cash transactions for
agriculture and daily transactions and allied activities were massively
impacted.
On November 17th,
Lucknow as per the discussion with an editor of an English newspaper in
Lucknow, the effect of demonetization could support favorably to central
government in UP election 2017, if the situation at Banks and ATMs will improve
in the coming days. But people who are located in areas with the inadequate
reach of the banks could be a serious disadvantage to the government due to
this step and situation can fall to uncontrolled status. The difficulties of
such people were also neglected in local media and they also faced the ruthless
behavior of the bank officials. The footfall at ATMs were very large in city
area of Lucknow for almost 15 days. In Lucknow agricultural mandis, farmers,
traders and laborers continue to wait for payments to be made. City continue to
be cashless and coverage has been focused on the difficulties of those standing
in queues. I have also observed the curiosity of people about immediate
information if any new steps taken by government regarding demonetization is
going to be announced through media.
While interacting with
voters in the Ballia district of Uttar Pradesh, I found that people are more
relying on media because of consistent changes in rules regarding bank deposits
announced by the government and media was the only available source to confirm
this information. I have encountered cases when people were mishandled by bank
officials due to non-availability of such information.
A man from the ‘Rasra’
village of district Ballia in Uttar Pradesh whose income depends on the sale of
milk and agriculture products which could barely feed the family. He was
carrying some Rs500 and Rs1000 currency to the main district for exchange with
other valid denominations of currencies. He received such currencies as his
regular income was largely dependent on cash transactions. He travelled 30 kilometers
to exchange his currency at the main branch of the city of a nationalized bank
because he could not get money from a rural bank in his area. Due to
disinformation about rules related to demonetization and not able to write in
Hindi/English language (illiteracy), he could not fill the required form by
bank of its own. So the bank officials denied to exchange his currencies after
queuing up for 6 hours on the first day. As a result of such similar conduct
and the cash crunch in the bank or any other glitches led to violence and
traffic reported in the various places. I have also observed extra deployment
of police force in many bank branches where there were large crowds outside the
banks. In Lucknow around the radius of 5 Km of area in Charbagh and Burlington
Chawk, only 3-5 ATMs were functioning in the second week of post demonetization
and other ATMs had not been recalibrated. In the city, salaried people were
also bearing the brunt of demonetization where salaries have been credited in
their bank accounts but Bank/ATM were out of cash to dispense. While talking to
these people in the field, I found that either they are criticizing the policy
or supporting the decision taken by the government. The agitation emerged from
the experiences of individual difficulties one faced due to cash crunch but
views on supporting the policy are influenced by media coverage through which
political parties were spreading their views on nationalism. Political
communication had played vital role through media and terms like nation
building or nationalism were associated with the demonetization policy in
public debate. The objective of demonetization was started with dealing with
corruption and black money by the Prime Minister through a national channel
ended with the objective of cashless/digital economy.
Mainstream media has
successfully covered narrative around the decision of demonetization. But there
was a disconnect between the mainstream narrative and the facts which emerged
in the ground. Television media was focused on coverage from the ground where
people were standing in the queues, but their motive to find the impact of such
a policy and overcome from the suffering was least prioritized. Media was found
to be more focused on finding the position of people about pros and cons of a
policy.
