Monday, November 14, 2016

"Development comes at a cost. We need to be ready to make sacrifices for the country."
Agreed. But how do you explain this to a mother who has lost her six months old baby. Does she figure in your list of martyr. Can you lend a flag to wrap her body? How do you explain this to the pregnant woman who collapsed after standing in queue under the sun all day?
We are all dancing in this euphoria of cleansing our economy of black money. My grocer tells me now India will be developed. "For first time rich ll feel what it means to be poor, even if it is for a day." He narrares me stories of some collector who had some 35lakhs hidden behind walls and of his driver friend, whose boss had 10lakhs under his bed. He seemed happy, his gleaming face was washed with a sort of hope that he had not seen in ages.
I don't know if I should bask alongwith him in his misplaced sunshine or believe what my common sense needles me to comprehend.
What is black money? Is it only these stacks of notes that have been turned into a heap of waste paper with the stroke of a magic wand. It would have been during the 80s.
But 1991changed everything, it ushered in a highways of wealth; it created a system which soon was rigged with people with power and influence and lies rotten after 25 long years. Trade invoicing, benami equity funds, hawala-- a plethora of illegal means and ways emerged to earn illegal money, unaccounted wealth; sharks with sharp teeths bite off big pieces from our developing India, the more they stayed away from the short arms of law, the more they became in brothers in arms with politicIans, more delusional became the cattle class and mango people, accepting corruption and money laundering as a way of life.
This "bold" decision will perhaps bring these people back to earth. Hopefully instilling fear.
But does all these suffering for 1.25billion people will be worth it? How much black money we will be able to seize, convert, pump into the economy? How will you quantity it? Will it kill the parallel shadow economy?
Will it bring a tomorrow when atleast 60 % of the poor mute people ll be able to dream again?
Will our kids ll be able to breath again under a clear sky? Will a Dalit can walk shoulder to shoulder to a brahmin?
Perhaps, I am blind. Or I have misplaced expectation, or I have lost my mind. After all we are all like milling clouds, swaying anyway the wind blows, hoping for an opportunity to rain down and find our green home. So let us get swayed, dancing to this tune once again, Just hope it doesn't end with a mighty fall.

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