By Inderjit Badhwar
As the Diwali season peters out, I focus on what most people, barring the saints, of course—what MOST people believe makes the world go around. It’s called money. Some call it cash. Economists call it currency. In India, we prefer the term notes.
Our government is trying to make ours a cashless society dependent entirely on electronic transfers and payments. But looks as if people have a love affair with cash. You can see it, feel it. Notes crackling inside your pocket give you a feeling of security, of power.
The US is the richest and most economically powerful country in the world. It has a 25 trillion dollar economy. But cash is still king in the United States—at least for now.
A 2018 report from the US Federal Reserve found that paper money continues to beat out digital spending, with 30% of all transactions and more than 50% of sales under $10. And while online shopping is growing, 77% of payments were made in-person.
CreditCards.com reported earlier this year that cash is the preferred payment method even among credit card rewards members. For sales under $10, 43% of shoppers opted to pay with cash, compared with 31% who paid with credit and 26 who used debit.
Money is also the symbol of trust, as goods once used to be. Any talk or even loose talk about altering the face or circulation of money sets off an uproar of humongous magnitude.
Prime Minister Modi’s demonetisation of 2016 nullified 86% of India’s currency. His move left the nation stunned, numbed and insecure. Its economic shockwaves impacted the entire economic architecture. Five years later, the issue is probably academic. But the Supreme Court is still examining the Constitutional and procedural aspects of Modi’s decision. Can any prime minister alter in any shape or form the nation’s cash flow, or change its appearance without following consultative or accountability guidelines and procedures?
Decades ago, extensive public discussions and official briefings had preceded the change in India’s currency when the “annas” and “pies” Pi were abolished and the Naya Paisa was established under the metric decimal system.
Which brings me to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Chief and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. He is currently hogging the headlines and media debate time for his public recommendation that the image of Hindu goddess Lakshmi should be printed on Indian Rupee notes in addition to that of Mahatma Gandhi.
Since 1949, the founding father of Independent India is the only person to have featured on currency notes. Prior to Independence, King George of the British Empire figured on the Rupee followed by the Konark Sun Temple to the ruins of Hampi.
From time to time, voices have been raised in favour of featuring other Indian luminaries like poet Tagore, nuclear scientist Dr Homi Bhabha, but these suggestions have been rejected by ruling political parties who favour maintaining Gandhi as a recurring symbol of national unity and sovereignty.
Pakistani notes carry the image of founder Jinnah, and the Chinese have Mao. In America, different denominations of the dollar carry images of founding fathers and former presidents—George Washington, Tom Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Alexander Hamilton, Andrew Jackson, Ulysses Grant, and Ben Franklin—who adorns the 100 dollar bill.
To come back to Indian politics, a storm of outrage, as well as some winds of support are blowing over Kejriwal’s plea to place the Hindu goddess and possibly the lovable Ganesh Deva on one side of the notes.
Kejriwal’s demand is actually kite flying in saffron skies. While Modi actually enforced demonetization with an iron hand, Kejriwal has no power to implement his suggestion or even to recommend it at an official forum.
But yet, the reaction to his proposal is as if it is a fait accompli! Leading secular parties have demanded his resignation for flouting constitutionally protected secularism. The ruling BJP is calling him a phony and hypocrite who has in the past attacked their Hindu ideology.
Actually, I would like to submit to all those including my fellow journalists who, like Chicken Licken, think the sky is falling, Kejriwal is playing two cards to derail the Hindutva monopoly of the BJP. Lakshmi vs the BJP’s aggressively expansionist Ram; and Schools n’Clinics vs Temple. Of course, he is using these tactics for political leverage and a piece of the cake in the coming state as well as national elections. And the symbolic message is that the Indian economy is in such dire straits that only the gods can now save it from further derailment.
Surprisingly, while a lot of Muslims and Christians and minorities titter at this “remedy”, they don’t view Kejriwal’s in-your-face Hanuman Chalisa-style personal Hinduism as a threat to their livelihoods, constitutional rights, and legal status in India in the way they fear the Sangh Parivar’s Hindutva assault.
AAP followers have never formed lynch mobs or sloganeered murderously outside churches and mosques. And AAP, in fact, opposed the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, that minorities believed was aimed at disenfranchising them. Last August, the Punjab BJP has asked the AAP supremo and Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to apologise for having opposed the Act.
True, while Big Bro Kejriwal, of late, does not speak out on the remission granted to Bilkis Bano’s gang-rapists and child murderers, and Ayodhya and related issues, he is on record (Al Jazeera interview) describing PM Modi as the greatest threat to secularism.
Currently, he has a voice brigade of people like Sanjay Singh and Amanatullah, and Atishi who are as vocal as any secularist on these issues.
The Laxmi-on-notes caper amuses me to no end as the biggest cosmodemonic prank played on the BJP and on their own turf. It creates an existential dilemma for BJP, based on the inherent contradictions of their own ideology: They can neither swallow nor spit it out. If they oppose it openly, they risk angering Hindus inside whose homes and shops their goddess pours forth benevolent benediction from every wall-hanging calendar. They simultaneously risk allying with the liberal-secular Congress-minded parties now calling for Kejriwal’s resignation. Conversely, if BJP welcomes the idea, it surrenders an important chunk of its religio-political turf to AAP. In both cases, the BJP loses an important part of its identity.
I don’t believe that a man who once called our PM a “psychopath” , ordered vigilance inquiries into the Ambanis, challenged the formidable Modi in Banaras, beat the BJP in three elections in Delhi, which were seen as national showdowns, then trounced their allies in Punjab, and is trying to grab their sacred ground in Gujarat, can possibly be called BJP’s B-team.
No, this is no friendly fixed wrestling match. This is India’s realpolitik and Kejriwal has learned the tricks of the trade— religious manipulation, social media one-upmanship, the art of the Big Promise, ballyhooing “development models” from none other than Narendra Modi. And for this, he owes Modiji a debt of gratitude.
Also, in this theatre of the absurd, Kejriwal’s comically uproarious proposal is the best Diwali gift he could give to parties fighting BJP’s monolithic hegemony!