Stood in line at the ATM to be part of the government’s currency exchange initiative, even as soldiers are dying at the border? The Delhi unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party has a gift for you. On Tuesday it emerged that the Delhi BJP has asked its cadres to distribute laddoos, an Indian sweet, to every household in the capital to “thank them for their patience” during the demonetisation effort.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched this revolutionary step to tackle black money,” said Delhi BJP Chief Manoj Tiwari. “Despite facing some inconvenience, people supported the move. Now, it is our turn to thank them and show our appreciation and respect for their patience.”
He explained that the cadres have been asked to knock on every door, from January 1 to January 10, to distribute the sweets in their areas.
"Sorry, we screwed up the economy and messed up your lives. Here, have a laddoo!"
— VISHAL DADLANI (@VishalDadlani) December 13, 2016
GREAT plan! :/
You complained people were going hungry.
— Priyashmita Guha (@priyashmita) December 13, 2016
Now they give you 1 laddoo per person & yet you complain?
Ungrateful people !!!
“We will encourage our workers to reach out to people. If people can stand in queues and not complain, can’t we give them a laddoo as a token of our appreciation,” said Tiwari.
“One laddoo to your neighbour will not hurt. Rather, it shows how grateful we are to them for the patience they have shown by supporting the Prime Minister’s decision… We will request our workers to come forward and buy at least one laddoo for their neighbour. If they want to buy five laddoos for five households, it will be even better,” he said.
The laddoo distribution drive comes after more than a month of confusing regulations from the government and the Reserve Bank of India on how exactly to dispose of older Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, which were declared invalid on November 8.
Naturally, Twitter picked up this thread and offered ideas on how the laddoo distribution might actually work:
Day1:1 ladoo per family
— Rajneesh (@MrMrRajneesh) December 13, 2016
Day2:Actually 2 ladoos per 3 families
Day3:Not ladoos, sugar cubes
Day4:Aap ladoo kha rahan hai, wahan border par...
BJP will give one laddoo for standing in queue outside an ATM. So actually there will be 2 laddoos - one from BJP and another from the ATM
— The Bad Doctor (@DOCTORATLARGE) December 13, 2016
Only four laddoos allowed in a month. Old laddoos cannot be exchanged for new ones any more. Anyone having more than 10 will be raided
— Ajith (@ajith27) December 13, 2016
Next: Laddoo diameter too large to dispense from existing machines. Need recalibration https://t.co/LsgcVmOaDt
— Bharat Shubhchintak (@TheHattivist) December 13, 2016
Others had thoughts on how the move might actually be implemented in a cashless world, or what it might mean to people.
Might be a digital laddoo on the NaMo app. https://t.co/rbmn4ovb2n
— Amit Varma (@amitvarma) December 13, 2016
In TN and Karn, giving someone a laddoo is a metaphor for shortchanging them. :) https://t.co/EjQVG8RiX9
— Rohini Mohan (@rohini_mohan) December 13, 2016
I just checked https://t.co/g6Syo2iqzW @RBI has NOT issued any circular to banks on #Laddoo as an alternative to cash foll. #DeMonetisation
— JayEnAar (@GorwayGlobal) December 13, 2016
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