From terrible mismanagement of the economy to calls of genocides and ethnic cleansing, a large spectrum of challenges is staring at our faces. The Indian Republic is in crisis, says political economist Parakala Prabhakar.
Mr. Prabhakar was speaking about ‘Social Impact of Demonetisation’, a talk on Indian Economic System organised by Samadharsi, a cultural, democratic initiative in Thrissur on Friday.
Nobody knows even today why government of India went for demonetisation. Initially, we heard it was a move targetting black money. Does anybody keep black money in cash? Then they said it was to prevent terror money. Later, they said it was to promote digitisation and reduce use of cash.
“More than 80% of the currency that was in circulation at that time was demonetised. The government told Parliament that 99% of the demonetised currency had come back. It created chaos across the country and people were pushed to terrible crisis. After all this chaos, actually the cash circulating in the Indian economy is much higher than what was before the demonetisation.”
This happened because the country was being guided by people who had no clue about what an economy was, what demonetisation or black money was, Mr. Prabhakar said. They didn’t know how a government could act to prevent black money, he added.
This government, which seemed good at praising itself, was silent about achievements of the demonetisation, he said.
Large part of the Indian economy, which was in the informal sector that transacted money in cash, had collapsed. Even today, the Indian economy had not recovered from the blow it suffered due to demonetisation. The pandemic added to the woes. Not a single job that was lost due to demonetisation came back. Most of the income that was lost due to demonetisation had not been recovered, he noted.
“Today, the youth unemployment in India is one of the highest in the world, which is nearly 23%. We are in the company of Lebanon, Syria and Iran. The unemployment rate in Bangladesh is just half what we have, that is 12%. This is directly connected to the blow suffered due to demonetisation.”
When the national statistical office prepared a report in 2019 that unemployment was at a 45-year high in the country, the BJP government disbanded the commission, Mr. Prabhakar alleged.
The Republic was in crisis, as it was moving farther away from the foundation principles of India. There were mass killings, lynchings, firings, abuses. But nobody responsible in the government was condemning them. Nobody responded even when three former Chief Ministers in Jammu and Kashmir were arrested. Manipur was burning but nobody bothered, he said.
If this crisis was not averted, the calls for lynching and ethnic cleansing that were heard form Manipur and remote places in UP and Madhya Pradesh would be heard from the Red Fort, he said.
