Shashi Tharoor is a prolific speaker and writer. The best thing about him, however, is his sense of humour. The Thiruvananthapuram MP is always sharing something interesting on Twitter. One of his tweets today caught our attention. The tweet is a comment on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s demonetisation policy. And man it’s a burn-worthy tweet. If you gotto hit out at your opponent, better do it with some class and wit.
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We wouldn’t give a verdict on whether we agree with his opinion or not. But one cannot escape the brilliance of the tweet. Also, he does give due credit to an anonymous “creative critic” of demonetisation. The tweet earned close to 500 retweets and loads of brickbats from fans of Narendra Modi who believe that demonetisation will rid this country of all evil. But the brilliance of the tweet was such that we cannot stop ourselves from sharing it, even at the cost of receiving troll attack.
Received from a creative critic of the #DeMonetisationDisaster pic.twitter.com/rj648YWsyD
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) December 10, 2016
Recently, Tharoor had written an extensive article expressing his views on demonetisation. He wrote:
India’s previously booming economy has now ground to a halt. All indicators – sales, traders’ incomes, production, and employment – are down. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh estimates that India’s GDP will shrink by 1-2% in the current fiscal year.
But, as is so often the case, the impact is not being felt equally by all. India’s wealthy, who are less reliant on cash and are more likely to hold credit cards, are relatively unaffected. The poor and the lower middle classes, however, rely on cash for their daily activities, and thus are the main victims of this supposedly “pro-poor” policy.The prime minister today at a rally in Gujarat said that people need not stand in queues as banks will be lining up outside their mobile banking system. He also called upon the youth help integrate people into the e-wallet and e-banking system and help the country move towards a cashless society. He also admitted that there will be difficulties and “people are standing in queues, not for their own benefit for the benefit of the country.”
However, several critics have pointed out that Prime Minister has changed the goalpost over a period of time. While the policy began with the aim of breaking the back of black money hoarders, suddenly the government is making it out to be an attempt to encourage a cashless economy. Till date, people are facing huge problems due to cash crunch. Banks and ATMs continue to run out of cash.
On his part, the Prime Minister reiterated that things will gradually start improving after 50 days since the announcement of the policy on 8 November.
