Black, white and grey
Scroll.in seems to be hell-bent on discrediting the demonetisation, which makes one suspicious of its editorial discretion and motives (“As queues lengthen and banks run out of cash, the danger is of India losing patience”).
It is understood that this scheme will not stop black money altogether but it will at least unearth a significant portion of it that has accumulated over the years.
Every honest and law-abiding citizen understands that the move will result in some inconvenience but is upbeat about the prospect of cracking down on black money. The coverage on Scroll.in seem to be centered around people who had been hoarding money, like small traders and businesses, who are now facing the heat. A good portion of their hoarded cash would be illegal and therefore they are under pain. Why such sympathy for them? They should have come clean in Income Declaration Scheme. The other angle which the website is looking at is that of the suffering of the really poor people. This is true to some extent but good samaritans are coming out to help and bridge the short-term gap for these people. Why not do a story on them? – Ayush Mahendru
***
When the government asked everybody to open accounts, why did so many not open them? Why did they not get Aadhaar cards. Who is to be blamed for this? – Alok Jain
***
I support the government taking steps towards eradicating black money, but this demonetisation will neither stop corruption nor dig out illegal wealth stashed in the country and abroad.
People with large amounts of black money have invested it in real estate and gold, and this people have gotten away. The exercise of demonetisation has inconvenienced the common man and put immense pressure on banking system. – Jatin
***
Those who deal in black money will try to do it no matter what denominations are in circulation. However, the demonetisation move will go a long way in boosting our economy. We must swallow a bitter pill in the short run for a long-term recovery. – Leela Chatterjee
***
I agree that the demonetisation exercise has led to much pain and should have been planned better. However, I’m sure you agree that an operation of this kind would have lost its objective if extensively planned. Drastic measures always bring with them certain hardships, but if we have to clean up the mess, we need to be a little patient.
And as for as the suffering of the common men and women, aren’t these the very same who have been filing fictional rent receipts and forged bills to evade tax, who have given donations to private schools to get their schools in, who get their property registered at lower than the market value to avoid registration charges and auto drivers who overcharge? We are all the common men and women and we all need to suffer to root out this illness. – Manish Bhatia
Cashless chaos
This is a refreshing view on the burning issue of demonetisation (”Lost opportunity to go cashless: Why introduce new high denomination notes at all? ”) . Any cashless transaction is accountable. The sheer inconvenience of carrying sacks full of currencies of lower denominations and counting them at the collection point would definitely prompt people to switch over to internet banking or similar modes of e-transaction.
In the absence of high denomination currencies, the stakeholders would definitely try to improve their competency level in e-payment mode. Today my wife swiped her debit card for the first time to procure grocery, thanks to demonetisation! Necessity is the mother of the first attempt too. – Vijayachandran P
View on women
I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw this piece on the RSS’ women’s wing, if one may even call it that (”Eighty years on, the RSS women’s wing has not moved beyond seeing the woman as mother”). It’s no surprise that Mohan Bhagwat said what he did, but to hear such stuff from women’s mouths is shocking. There is no marital rape, we are told, and women should not hold rights over ancestral property. One is reminded of a Tagore short story called “The Wife’s Letter” (1914), a blistering critique of the bigotry and hypocricy of the Hindu male. More than a hundred years on, the Sanghi straitjacket seems to be working with equally commendable efficiency for our devout Hindu women. – Anjan Basu
Last song
This is a beautiful and reflective piece on Leonard Cohen and brought me to tears (“‘I’m ready, my lord’: Leonard Cohen found so many good ways to say goodbye”). He had so many selves and he owned them all. I will always love his gifts to us and love him for sharing his complexity, darkness, light, joy, anger, love, serenity and fatefulness – forever. Thanks for evoking this. I travel lighter for his presence, darker for his loss, peaceful that he has been and grateful that our time coincided. – Maree Pardy
***
I was mesmerised by this article on Leonard Cohen in Mumbai (”Bird on a Wire: How Bombay helped Leonard Cohen find his voice again”). Cohen was almost a deity for me. He was a friend in need, a guide in devastation. His loss is irreparable and its amazing to hear that he was so close to home. – Biprajit Dutta
Wrong move
If the government changes the anti-corruption law to protect government servants and politicians, the main hoarders of black money, then is proves that it is not for the citizens (“Centre approves changes to anti-corruption law that will protect government staff from probes”). As a citizen of India, I object to this move. – Prabhakar Nairi
Hillary trumped
It was like the Emperor’s New Clothes, except with an empress (“‘We owe him an open mind’: Hillary Clinton concedes US presidential election to Donald Trump”). Hillary Clinton romped the American stage for a year, exposing her weaknesses for all to see – her overarching artificiality, her attempt at cleverness, her desperate ambition, her constant prevarication and her unethical deeds.
Even the solitary fig leaf of so-called work experience began to slip off during the long exposure to media lights: it could be seen that she had risen to her full level of incompetence.
But that is for those who wanted to see. Unlike the naked emperor’s story where his staff did not speak out of fear and the populace did not speak out of respect, the two categories of people here who refused to see or speak were the establishment elite and the feminists. Poor Hillary. If only she had friends who could tell her the truth, and not let her get delusional about her talents or her chances of winning.
Interestingly, the person she was challenging was one who constantly directed attention to his own nakedness, maybe because such is his personality. For this, he was derided by both friend and foe. He had more people than he wanted telling him precisely what he was. For feminists seeking a symbolic victory, this is a double blow. Not only is a woman not the winner, but the man who won has been openly labelled an enemy of women, and further, he took 53% of white women’s votes (to Hillary’s 43%).
Maybe the older feminists, many among them my good friends, need to take a relook at this divisive binary of woman as an opposite of man, as opposed to man, as a category exclusive of man. It is dehumanising, in a way. Maybe we could learn something from the younger millennial women, and the non-college women, who think, and vote, differently. – Rajan Venkatesh
Breaking the code
I would like to congratulate Srijoni Sen for an excellent venture (“Cutting the jargon: Here’s a website that translates Indian laws into simple English”). May god bless you and your team and wish you all success for this venture. Surely, people will benefit from it. – Prosanta
Low-blow
Shiv Vishwanathan’s opinion piece on Arnab Goswami is distasteful and lacks basic observational skills and the modicum of respect that the anchor deserves (“The phenomenon called Arnab Goswami is a caricature of our worst selves”).
Yes, his show lacks nuance and high-decibel but to say the rise of Goswami is akin to rise of Hitler is a desperate low-blow to a man who beat the author in his sport. What’s worse is he then goes on to blame the masses like us for giving rise to the Hitler.
Your very article highlights all those qualities that you deride in Goswami – no nuance, rant, innuendo, generalisation, etc. – Abhishek
Clean slate
As a secondary-school teacher following the CBSE curriculum, I back the proposal to reintroduce the board exams and do away with CCE (“CBSE board exams for Class 10 likely to be brought back, says Prakash Javadekar”).
It is well-known that students get higher marks in internal assessments and the real evaluation is of the written tests. The CCE may have been more effective is school provide more scientific set up of metrology and teaching equipment as well as proper training of teachers.
Many successful and great Indians such as Swami Vivekananda and Netaji Bose were the outcome of old board-exam based evaluation system. – Bidhan Majumdar