The poor man’s Barkha, Nidhi Razdan of NDTV has a penchant for making a fool of herself on social media. In the past, she has been lampooned by social media users for revealing her ignorance on all sorts of issues: Be it RSS, or loan “write-offs” or even basic statistics. But such minor issues do not stop foolish fearless journalists.
Today, the rupee breached the Rs 70 per dollar mark. Wasteful journalists would have spent time trying to analyse this from an economic perspective, but smart cookies like Nidhi chose to do some more meaningful work: digging up old tweets of BJP supporters. Nidhi pulled up a tweet from 2013 by one such supporter, who had expressed anguish about the rupee heading to 70.
Old tweets really are a *#%* https://t.co/AXMYQ1Ycbk
— Nidhi Razdan (@Nidhi) August 14, 2018
The tweet which Nidhi dug up was from 2013, and Nidhi thought it best to use it to make a point. Unfortunately, far from making her point, this tweet actually ended up proving the opposite.
Sandeep Parekh, a financial sector lawyer attempted to explain the same to her i.e. if the rupee had reached near 70 in 2013 and after 5 years, it had re-reached that mark, and considering the inflation rate and the expected depreciation in the rupee, the currency had actually performed better than expected:
Rupee depreciates by inflation rate difference. So the tweet has aged well and shows the govt in good light. Opposite of what you are indicating.
— Sandeep Parekh (@SandeepParekh) August 14, 2018
Similarly, another banker laughed off the “class IV maths” of Nidhi:
48 to 69 in 4 yrs (2009-13) = 58 to 70 in 4 yrs (2014 – 18) ..
We have abt 500 million currency forecasters now, rivalling Monetary economists and Bankers. A bit of ClassIV level maths wud be ideal, but doesnt really matter…. https://t.co/qiiwWzb0cp
— Somnath Mukherjee (@somnath1978) August 14, 2018
Perhaps, if Nidhi had spent time reading up, instead of digging up (old tweets), she would not have been in this position. Other financial experts and economists also weighed in on the rupee issue and explained in detail why this was inevitable:
#Rupee notes
1. in past 4 yrs ₹ gained 20% in REER terms
2. in same period inflation (total) was > 20%
3. means ₹ was losing purchasing power domestically
4. but gaining power internationally
5. not sustainable
6. since domestic & overseas valuation needs some parity
… 1/2— Ajit Ranade (@ajit_ranade) August 14, 2018
#Rupee notes (contd)
7. hence depreciation inevitable
8. besides 20% REER gain is a TAX on exporters
9. On domestic industry too competing w/ imports
10. w/ Lira down 70% this yr, ZAR too
11. rupee cannot be immune from contagion
12. so this fall is ok makes ₹ competitive
…2/2— Ajit Ranade (@ajit_ranade) August 14, 2018
The rupee has to depreciate – it’s still a fairly smooth curve, even at 70. https://t.co/xeAi2zH3PH
— Deepak Shenoy (@deepakshenoy) August 14, 2018
They highlighted various facts such as how the rupee had actually gained by 20% in 4 years, in terms of the real effective exchange rate and was actually gaining power internationally. Hence, keeping in mind domestic inflation, there was bound to be a time when the rupee finally fell. Further, international pressures like the Lira crashing by 70% also had its impact on the rupee, as other global currencies too saw pressure.
Of course, these are small issues to big journalists like Nidhi Razdan, who in spite of getting it from Left, Right and Centre, would probably prefer to hold her shaky ground, rather than admitting that the Buck stops here. We only hope her prime-time debate focuses on facts, or else it might end up being another occasion when she conducts an entire debate on fake news.
