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Pathetic journalism – when media thought you can get STDs from ATMs

Dr. Shweta
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Pathetic journalism – when media thought you can get STDs from ATMs

In a s̶e̶l̶f̶ destructive attempt to malign a government initiative, the Indian media has once again unmasked their own “illiteracy” (can we still call it a mask after the million holes put in it by OpIndia?) and spread panic and rumour in the process. I am referring to some of the reports in the media, which claimed that ATMs may cause STDs (Sexually Transmitted Diseases)!

I first broke into laughter. It soon turned into horror as I wondered what exactly these media people were doing to those ATMs to get STDs! And how?! Ewww!

But worse, there still are people who believe the mainstream media, trusting them with veracity of information.

But I don’t trust them. So I looked at the source of this stupid news item. They all seemed to have picked it up from a news service IANS, but the ‘STD spreading’ headlines were the work of horror by our their own editorial teams. India Today even went so far as to link it to the “note ban”. Economic Times also linked it indirectly, but they didn’t put STD in the headline.

ATM STD news by India Today
Sensationalism or plain stupidity?

First, the facts:

These news reports quote a research to back their sensationalist headlines. The research quoted was conducted in New York by a biologist. What the media understood from the research was that ATMs are potential source of STI causing pathogens. The spin is that the pathogens are present on ATMs.

But this micro-habitat is also present on any other object that is commonly used by public; for example, door of a cab, bus, metro railings, office desk and even toilet seat at your home.

Yet, how often are we visiting venereologists after coming in contact with these objects? These pathogens can cause anything as small as common cold to grave illness like Tuberculosis. But the chances of contracting STD are negligible.

What is an STI? Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are infections that are spread primarily through person-to-person “sexual” contact. I am still wondering how the i̶n̶t̶e̶l̶l̶e̶c̶t̶u̶a̶l̶s̶ of our society are having fun with Automated Teller Machine that they are fearing about getting STD?

The truth is that the microbes mentioned in the news reports are the ones that are frequently present either as normal flora of our body or are result of unclean hands (something that is not the result of demonetization, at least).

News article says that microbial communities extracted from the ATMs in New York were those found in food, environment, residual DNA from meals, Lactobacillus (which is usually found in decomposing plants or milk products). As far as basic science is concerned, you can be assured that none of them can cause STI.

Study quoted in article also agrees that “the most common identified sources of microbes on the keypads were from household surfaces such as televisions, restrooms, kitchens and pillows, as well as from bony fish, mollusks and chicken.”

So aren’t we struggling with more risk in our own cosy beds than those shabby ATMs?

So how exactly did the media convince the ATMs to spread STDs?

According to the news, “the research team found a parasite typically seen in the gut of humans, along with a species closely related to the human parasite Trichomonas Vaginalis (TV), which can potentially cause STD.”

Now, the question is that how a species “closely related” to TV became TV itself and started causing STDs? Is it the new sci-fi parasite? It is like saying that anopheles which is a malarial vector, can also cause zika or dengue just because it is also a mosquito. But that never happens and so similar parasite cannot become TV and cause STD.

More importantly, when I went through the original research, I found that they could not confirm the presence of TV. Researchers in original article said that they were not able to differentiate Trichomonas vaginalis from closely related zoonotic species using 18S rRNA loci alone and in their study they could not confirm the likely source of eukaryotic pathogen species.

The other time they mentioned about TV where they said that it is from avian (birds) source: “A species closely related to the human parasite Trichomonas vaginalis that was originally isolated from avian sources were also recovered from ATM keypads.”

From this we can infer two things:

1. The researchers could not confirm the presence of pathogen that can cause STI.
2. The tumult created by media headlines was alarmist and gloom-mongering.

But you can’t expect the media to be responsible enough to go into the details of research reports before spreading rumours and panic. Indian media will conveniently blame the agencies they source the news from. But remember, the headlines are all theirs.

When they see something that sounds too strange to be true, you would expect them to crosscheck with some experts. But, they see STD and ATM in one report and were more than happy to run them with alarmist headlines, especially at a time when people are thronging ATMs, with some even linking it to the “note ban”.

Now you know, that it is actually the media that is spreading STD (Stupidly Through Discourse?) rather than the ATMs.

Arvind Kejriwal calls BBC journalist ‘dishonest’ for questioning his claims

OpIndia Staff
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Arvind Kejriwal calls BBC journalist ‘dishonest’ for questioning his claims

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has teamed up with Mamata Banerjee these days and is in the forefront on attacking the Modi government over the demonetisation move. Both the leaders jointly addressed a rally in Delhi recently and have threatened mass agitations if the government doesn’t roll back its decision.

Both the leaders wear simple clothes and draw their popularity from being ‘aam aadmi’ lifestyle and mannerisms. Both of the leaders claim not to be communists, but their rhetoric and policies are often on the left side of the ideological divide. And cadres of respective parties of both the leaders are largely made up of people who got disillusioned with Congress.

Now in yet another similarity with Mamata Banerjee, Arvind Kejriwal has started showing petulance and reductionism that the West Bengal Chief Minister is often accused of. Just like Mamata declared anyone “Maoist” or a “CPM cadre” for asking uncomfortable questions, Kejriwal has started declaring people “dishonest” for not toeing his claims and narrative.

This facet of Kejriwal’s character came to the fore yesterday when he declared a BBC journalist “dishonest” and “lacking courage” when he dared to question some claims made by the AAP supremo in an interview.

In the interview, Kejriwal claimed that 55 people in India had died while standing in queues outside banks and ATMs. When the BBC journalist wondered how could he link all the deaths to demonetisation only – a fact that this OpIndia.com article also highlights – Kejriwal got angry and declared him dishonest:



During the entire interview, Kejriwal’s behaviour and body language was intimidating and aggressive, and he was not willing to answer counter questions about his claims. Instead he made up for that by accusing the journalist of being dishonest and bringing bad name to the legacy of BBC.

This belligerent behaviour is a sea change from the Arvind Kejriwal one saw during the Anna Hazare days, when he was most willing to talk to the media and would answer all kind of questions without losing his cool or indulging in character assassinations of those who questioned him.

Also, it is interesting that Kejriwal is insisting of an exaggerated and inflated data of 55 deaths due to demonetisation, while his own government is removing the official data of deaths due to dengue and chikungunya.

Why does Vir Sanghvi block on Twitter if you mention words like Rail Neer or Mira Road?

Hemant Bijapurkar
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Why does Vir Sanghvi block on Twitter if you mention words like Rail Neer or Mira Road?

Earlier this week when everyone was busy discussing effects of demonetisation and predicting either gloom or glory for the nation, author and columnist Shefali Vaidya decided to lighten the somber mood and decided to test the effects of a word on journalist Vir Sanghvi:


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Soon people, who probably spent an exhausting day in a bank queue somewhere, found a way to unwind.

One just retweeted the above tweet, and…


For those rare ones who still can’t guess what happened there, “Radia” refers to the corporate lobbyist and PR professional Niira Radia, whose telephonic conversations with many journalists were leaked back in year 2010. These journalists were heard either taking editorial “suggestions” from Radia for their columns or trading information that presumably was passed on to politicians i.e. acting as courier in the lobbying process. Some others were heard talking usual gossip about how entire system, including the judiciary, was corrupt and compromised.

The journalists featuring in these tapes were Barkha Dutt, Vir Sanghvi, MK Venu, Prabhu Chawla, and many others. While Barkha was alleged to have acted as a courier between Congress and DMK for ministerial berth lobbying, Sanghvi was heard agreeing to “dress up” his column to suit a corporate line. While Barkha didn’t claim that the tapes were edited, though she defended her conduct, Sanghvi claimed that the tapes were mischievously edited. He later sent the tapes to some private forensic lab and got a clean chit for himself.

However, many Twitterati don’t buy this clean chit, and they keep ragging poor (not literally) Sanghvi by mentioning Radia in his mentions, after which he blocks those accounts.

Like this tweet. Obviously you will be blocked when you mention that word in all caps:


But some people became a bit creative. They tried words that sounded similar to Niira Radia. But Sanghvi could sense what was going on:


Even at 2 AM in the night, people were bowling and Sanghvi was blocking all their yorkers or googlies:


The game continued:


Some got blocked for writing Radia in ‘drunk’ language:


Some didn’t write anything similar sounding, in fact they praised Sanghvi, but the senior journalist knew what they were up to:


And this one is just too much:


As it appeared, this was not for the first this ‘Radia game’ was played with Vir Sanghvi. Earlier in February this year, the same game was played, and the results were no different:


Even OpIndia had joined the fun then, though without tagging Vir Sanghvi:


It is relieving to know that this Twitter game was played again only after so many months, and that’s how it should be, not becoming a daily targeted ragging and tagging exercise.

But looks like Vir Sanghvi can escape playing this game anytime in future now. He can and should use Twitter’s latest feature that allows people to mute tweets which contain specific words. In order to aid Mr. Sanghvi, here are some other rhyming words and phrases to Niira Radia which he can include in his mute list – When Rome was burning, Radial tires, Kheera, Odiya, Barkha, and Sonam Gupta (because why the hell not).

Visceral hate of Pankaj Mishra stinking in garbage of New York Times

Satish Kumar
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Visceral hate of Pankaj Mishra stinking in garbage of New York Times

Pankaj Mishra, a novelist and essayist, and alleged to be internationally acclaimed, is back with his anti-India and anti-Modi rhetoric in New York Times, which misses no opportunity to paint India as a society still living in dark ages waiting for a white saviour.

Pankaj Mishra is known for bashing every Indian thing, as he has internalized the western viewpoints about India in such a manner that a person who is reading his articles for the first time will get an impression that he doesn’t have any connection with India. Colonialism has left such profound impact on his thought process that he can’t escape from it even if he wants.

In his latest exceedingly boring and rhetorical essay, which is epitome of verbosity, titled “The Incendiary Appeal of Demagoguery in Our Time” and published in New York Times, he tries to explain the rise of Narendra Modi and Donald Trump by his own sociopolitical understanding. But as expected, instead of explaining the rise in objective or even in biased manner, he indulges himself in bashing every Indian thing, which is only the expressions of a person who vehemently hates his roots and tries to get flattered by Western intelligentsia.

For example, he writes:

“The stink first became unmistakable in India in May 2014, when Narendra Modi, a member of an alt-right Hindu organization inspired by fascists and Nazis, was elected prime minister. Like Donald Trump, Mr. Modi rose to power demonizing ethnic-religious minorities, immigrants and the establishment media, and boasting about the size of a body part.”

This is the opening remark by Mishra in his essay. Mishra doesn’t even understand what alt-right means and what either RSS or BJP stands for.

Alt-right movement is a very recent phenomenon in USA who are against feminism, political correctness, Zionism and believe in free market economics. Compared to that movement, RSS is at least 90 years old now which seeks to promote Hindu nationalism, which is a movement of cultural revival where a nation will be founded on the bases of sociocultural reality instead of ethnic or linguistic reality, which happens to be the case with most of the nations of Europe. On economic front, RSS’s view coincides with centre of left economists.

Mishra makes time-travel a reality if we believe in his hypothesis of RSS being inspired from a movement which will emerge 70 years later from its foundation. His rhetoric of RSS being inspired from Fascists and Nazis are crude lies considering the fact that nobody from RSS has mentioned about these two ideologies for last 70 years. Integral Humanism of Deendayal Upadhyay and Nationalism of Shyama Prasad Mukherjee have been the guiding doctrines for RSS in recent years.

Coming to other parts of his sentence, which is comprised of jargons without any substantial proof, gives idea about his inherent hatred for Modi. The term ‘ethno-religious minorities’ is incorrect because religious minorities of India have same ethnicity as of majority of Indians.

Mishra couldn’t produce a single sentence in which Modi threatened minorities or demonized immigrants. Probably Mishra meant ‘Bangladeshi immigrants’ when he writes that Modi demonized immigrants. The truth is inconvenient which Mishra won’t be able to digest. Modi indeed talked about “illegal” Bangladeshi immigrants who are involved in every sort of crime in West Bengal and North Eastern States but Mishra can’t differentiate between ‘legal’ and ‘illegal’ immigrants in his profound hatred towards Modi.

His comment on Modi boasting about a particular body size demonstrates his alienation from India and its languages. 56 (chhappan) is a very common idiom in Hindi which means showing courage but Mishra fails to comprehend such common thing. It will be too much to expect from him to understand the India that lives in the hinterlands (chhappan chhuri to chhappan bhog), but least he could have done is to recall the Bollywood movie Ab Tak Chhappan.

In the coming paragraphs, Mishra goes on to quote Jean Paul, gives examples of various parts of the world to make his argument substantial and coherent but that’s nothing more than the hollow rhetoric to prove a hypothesis which can’t be proved. He denounces India’s economic progress since 1991, writes off the horrors and crimes of dynasty rule of India, claims Digital India is only a propaganda where tech billionaires and politicians meet, criticises Indian media because it tells the story of India’s rise sometimes (he calls Economic Times chauvinistic), quotes writers who are expert on India in the same manner as Karl Marx and Max Weber were experts on Indian economy etc.

He proposes his hypothesis, which explains the rise of leaders like Trump and Modi, blaming it to the rotten mainstream institutions, but in the same breath criticises the leaders who criticised the same mainstream institutions. Mishra reveals much about his cognitive dissonance in his hypothesis when tries to be an intellectual.

“Following authoritarian ruling parties in Hungary and Poland, and a brazenly despotic one in Turkey, India’s Hindu nationalists, a fringe outfit for much of the country’s existence, have swiftly occupied the state, staffing chief institutions with loyalists while intimidating nonstate actors like NGOs, journalists, writers and artists.”

This excerpt from his essay is the classical example of labelling everything from right spectrum as fascist and authoritarian without going in detail or backing his claims with any evidence.

What he terms as ‘a fringe outfit for much of the country’s existence’ is actually the group which gave a clear majority to BJP and Modi. Apparently, democracy doesn’t remain a democracy anymore when his favourite liberal candidate doesn’t win.

A clear mandate delivered by people to BJP has been termed as ‘occupation of state’ as if BJP seized the power through a coup. In practice, Mishra’s own clan beginning from political class of Lenin to intellectual class having parasitical hold on institutions like academia and arts, is expert in occupying the state. When it comes to staffing the chief institutions with loyalists, as Mishra alleges, perhaps he’s referring to the growth his own clan.

In last 60 years, every institution has been filled with so-called liberals, pseudo-seculars, and communists by the dynasty, but that doesn’t get qualified as ‘lobbyists’ for some unknown reasons. When crackdown happens on NGOs for not following the rule of the law of country where they operate, people like Mishra are quick to call it ‘intimidation’ as if non-state actors are beyond the law. When the lies of agenda driven fifth column writers and journalists are exposed by people, it’s intimidation, while banning the book of Rushdie and threatening Taslima Nasreen are acts of promoting writing, considering these happened in dynasty regime.

Last but not the least significant, Mishra categorizes leaders like Modi, Putin, Trump etc in the category of ‘demagouge’. A demagouge is the leader who gains popularity by exploiting prejudice and ignorance among the common people rather than using rational argument.

Considering that Modi rose in power by promising a better and more efficient government which will stimulate economic growth, how he qualifies to be a demagouge can only be explained in Mishra’s own imaginary world. For him, the desire for prosperity and better lifestyle must be prejudice, for Modi promised these things only.

If voting for someone who promises an efficient system with better governance is ignorance, voting for an infinitely corrupt regime must be a rational and well informed choice for Mishra.

The true demagouges in the world were Lenin, Mao, Fidel Castro, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Hugo Chavez, etc. who exploited the prejudices of the people, and a majority of these are figures who inspire people like Mishra.

Mishra’s hate for Modi and India has continued unabated for a long time which is propagated by publications such as New York Times, Bloomberg, The Guardian, etc. The myth propagated by authors like Mishra must be debunked to save the discourse from further distortion.

SWOT analysis of the demonetisation move

Shwetank Bhushan
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SWOT analysis of the demonetisation move

In an exclusive broadcast, PM Modi shook the country by announcing surgical strike on fake currency and black money, unparalleled in its scale and scope, by demonetising Rs. 500 and 1,000 notes effective from 9th November, midnight. Note that this came exactly 27 years after the fall of the Berlin wall.

We are in the second week since this decision came. The outcome cannot be accurately predicted, neither can the sound implementation be ensured amidst such large-scale disruption, especially in a complex, multi-layered society like India. One way to analyse such high impact policy proposal is to compare its expected benefits with the expected costs.

It is the time that we do an in-depth analysis of the strengths and weaknesses that are integral to this hard-hitting measure. We must also analyse the broader opportunities and threats to identify the potential problems or say, the cost to the society that needs to be recognised and possibly addressed. We shall also look into the politics of this move.

STRENGTHS:

Black Money and Counterfeits: Two primary reasons were touted for this drastic move – to hit at black money and to check counterfeits. This move left the parallel black economy choked and gasping. The elimination of fake currency is inevitable, and one also hopes that a check is well in place while these notes are routed through banking channels. It will be a tremendous achievement.

Countering Terror & Crime: While the government has clearly pointed out the use of fake currencies by terror outfits, some have spoken about uses of cash by criminals. This move has already halted many terror operations and has the potential to force a significant shift in the terror infrastructure.

As the large chunk of Hawala money is delivered to separatist leaders and local politicians to fuel protesters, the four-month-long unrest in the valley is also getting wiped out in the absence of cash inflow, security agencies believe. Besides, the lack of Hawala money would also hit the Maoists activities and other insurgent groups across India, especially in the northeast region, intelligence officials said.

Timing: No timing is perfect, but in hind-sight, the timing seems obvious. If we connect the dots, the very first decision of Modi Govt was to establish a SIT on Black Money. Then came the massive roll-out of the Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) nearly completing all citizens’ access to bank accounts. The next was crack down on hoarders /foreign accounts (approximately RS. 80,000 Cr was collected). Then followed the Income Declaration Scheme, with a deadline of 30th Sept 2016. Another window of opportunity was given to people to declare their amassed wealth. (Rs. 65,000 Cr collected) Now, if you still have the Black Money, the government will ensure that either you declare and become mainstream or else face the hammer. Commendable chronology!

Reformist Stance: Demonetisation is not a foolproof measure, but it attacks the black money problem with unprecedented force and at multiple layers. If the objectives are achieved through sound implementation, this will show a strong signal about India’s anti-corruption drive and also its reformist stance.

WEAKNESSES:

Preparedness: The entire banking and postal system were caught unaware. The government says that it will now take two more weeks to configure all ATMs. The situation is testing in small towns, most ATMs are still not dispensing cash, and some branches are easily running out of cash. It seems that the planning ahead of such massive event lacked matching preparedness.

But the government could not have stashed large cash in banks and reconfigured ATMs. It would have led to the corrupt getting wind of the announcement and overnight getting much of their illicit wealth converted.

Logistics: There is always the risk that the infusion of the new currency notes is not sufficient to satiate the demand for currency. The government has fixed certain limits, which for all practical purposes seem moderately small.

Unaccounted Wealth: There are many means to store wealth; in cash, foreign currency, gold, real estate, and several other instruments. Out of which hard cash is relatively unattractive as it earns a negative rate of return, whereas, other modes of unaccounted wealth are laundered, and becomes much harder to identify. So this strike is only on black-cash and not on the entire parallel economy per se.

Cutting Corruption: Demonetisation does not promise that there will not be any future corruption. Crooks are always creative and will find ways to circumvent this demonetisation. At best, this is a reset button.

Sluggish Economy: This process would increase bank deposits with an obligation to pay interest. Can the financial institutions mobilize these funds fast enough and be able to disburse as loans, especially in a sluggish economy?

OPPORTUNITIES:

Windfall Profit: The Chief Economic Advisor of the government has argued that this decision would lead to transfer from black money holders to the RBI and then to the government. For the cash that does not return, should the RBI simply decide to reduce its liabilities and create a profit? It won’t be unwise in this exceptional case of the fight against black money but may send wrong messages. RBI may take some time and carry the liabilities on its balance sheet for the foreseeable future but should not announce this in advance.

High cost of Future Crimes: Cash facilitates crime because it is anonymous and big bills are easy to carry. By inflicting a cost, demonetisation cripples the ability to engage in future corruption. It is far easier indulging in crime with substantial cash in hand. The costs of crime will become much higher and will have an indirect but powerful impact on future corrupt practices committed with the help of currency.

Checks on Loose Sectors: Black money spawns in an economy in areas where the checks and balances are weak and have larger cash component in their transactions like commodity hoarding and trading, movie production, campaign finance, and of course real estate. Since liquidity dries up, hoarders’ and black-marketers’ holding power collapses leading to prices collapse. Demonetisation will result in a correction in these markets, either by a reduction in prices or a reduction in business. We will see the outcome in time to come. However, these corrections will move the market to equilibrium reflecting genuine demand and supply in the real economy.

Less-Cash Economy: Cash greatly facilitates transactions and hence we should aim for a less-cash economy and not cash-less. A less-cash economy is an excellent balance between maintaining ease of financial operations and also curbing malpractices.

Financial Inclusion: It also provides a boost to the government’s financial inclusion drive, pushing more households towards efficient banking and payment infrastructure.

THREATS:

The Cost of Harassment: A massive logistics exercise was undertaken causing countrywide panic and confusion. If the government does not invest all its energies into replenishing and re-calibrating ATMs, festering inconvenience will lead to backlash and has potential to undo the intended good work. Daily wage earners, truck drivers don’t have much time to stand in line every day. People can only do this for a limited time. It will also give the opposition a stronger opportunity to carry sustained attacks.

Lower Economic Activity: Overall the adoption of electronic payment instruments is slow, and the infrastructure is weak. During the transition period, the shortage of the lubricant of economic activity disrupts the smooth working of the economy. As a consequence, in coming weeks, business is likely to be sluggish. In informal labour markets, daily wage labourers are not able to get enough work. Many other markets that depend on full or partial cash payment are also affected. These costs will show up in the form of lower GDP (it counts all output, with tax evasion or not) during the affected period.

Panic and Confusion: This is the biggest threat. The political discourse is at the lowest. The opposition parties have been quick to fuel and magnify public annoyance over the teething problems. Misinformation and confusion is being propagated on an hourly basis to see to it that somehow this move is unsuccessful. Even majority of the TV channels, instead of being helpful or providing tips to people, are indulging in fear-mongering. OpIndia.com has busted many such rumour mongering.

THE POLITICS:

Some have accused the government of taking the decision because of electoral considerations. Today in India, there is a mass hysteria about black money. The electorate has given clear signals that this is one of the issues that they care the most. It could be the real context of this calculated political gamble.

Those backing the government are saying this is a genuine attempt to solve a massive long overdue problem. Even those who do not support the government agree on the scale and seriousness of the problem, while they disagree on intentions and means.

The political capital invested in this is enormous. All political parties will be hit badly, including the BJP. It incidentally will hit BJP’s one of the core support base in the short run, who are mostly traders.

CONCLUSION:

The biggest hurdle in India is the lack of State capacity. But the government and the RBI are taking steps to make life easier for people and should flood the Banks and ATMs with new notes without delay so that panic is removed.

The next few months are going to be painful and disturbing and should be seen as an emerging economy trying hard to reform its corrupt self. Our generation has not seen a revolutions. Fortunately, they are witnessing as well as indulging in it. Watchmen, carpenters, maids, shopkeepers, cooks, sweepers, almost all are showing relatively calm, positive and mature understanding of the after effect.

No defining change comes without some pain. Behind the joy and hope of unification of two Germany’s, lurked the pain of actually merging the two. It took the deep reserves of the famous German grit and many painful years to not just recover, but emerge as the one of the world’s chief economic engine.

When an economy is suffering from cancer, the only way to deal with it is painful doses of chemotherapy. With intense follow-up and awareness campaigns, the government can have people on its side even during their continuing hardship.

10 reasons that faux-economists give to derail the demonetisation programme

Srikanth Ramakrishnan
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10 reasons that faux-economists give to derail the demonetisation programme

The recent move to demonetise high-value notes by the Government of India has met with a fair amount of scepticism, criticism and opposition. The move has given a tremendous rise into armchair economists overnight, many of whom are opposing the entire move for reasons which we’re sure even they don’t understand.

Here are ten reasons that they give to call the programme a failure, with point by point explanation of why the reason is stupid.

1. Cash forms an insignificant amount in black money

Argument: data from tax raids conducted in 2012-13 shows that around 6% of money recovered was undisclosed. What this means is that only 6% of the money that was recovered was black money. So only 6% black money in the economy.

However, these fake economists forget one thing: Black money is undisclosed income. Undisclosed income is income off the records. There is no data on how much undisclosed income is actually there. If the IT sleuths have not found more than 6%, it does not there is no more than 6% black money, it simply means those who have it, have hidden it in some other ways. Now they can’t keep that money hidden as they are no longer legal and valid.

While it is true that not all black money remains as cash, it is also true not everyone who has it has access to a Swiss Bank account, not everyone has bought Gold or Property with it. Remember AAP MLA Kartar Singh who was caught with 130 crore rupees in his house? There are some people who claim that storing cash is difficult due to storage issues and hazards. Do you speak with experience?

2. Counterfeit currency is NOT that big a problem

A study by the Indian Statistical Institute in 2015 said that around 400 crore rupees in fake notes was in circulation at any given point in time. This is used by many to claim that only it is only 0.025% of our budget. The issue here is that, like in the previous case, there is AT LEAST 400 crore. It could be higher. There are printing presses in Peshawar and Karachi in Pakistan, both of which are exclusively used to print Indian currency.

Haven’t we already seen how this is troubling Malda, called India’s fake currency capital? And problem is not just magnitude of fake currency, but the actions it enables – terrorism, naxalism, and other criminal activities.

3. There was rise in Bank Deposits in the months prior to the announcement

Possibly the most uneducated statement, the rise in bank deposits was confirmed by the government as deposits made due to settlement of arrears from the 7th Pay Commission.

4. This drive is to whitewash black money

Converting black money to white isn’t that easy. Anyone returning bank notes will be under scrutiny and the IT sleuths WILL find out whether the cash was black or white.

5. The cause of black money is not being solved

Agreed, but taking out black money from circulation is where it starts. Next, using the data from those who have come forward to hand over extra cash and comparing with their Tax Records. Rooting out black money and those in possession isn’t an overnight task and this is just the first step.

6. Done to derive political mileage

The government is being accused of using this for political mileage and creating drama. So they agree that this move is something being appreciated by people and thus can result in political mileage? Then are those reports about massive inconvenience to people leading to popular resentments are untrue? Maybe. As we have seen how reports about deaths due to demonetisation were largely exaggerated and manipulated.

Furthermore, the drive could actually hit the BJP politically, because a bulk of the BJP’s support and votebank comes from middle class traders and businessmen dealing in cash. So what’s exactly is the argument?

7. This government was unprepared

Hindsight is always 20/20. And yes, the execution could have been better, and the government is changing a few rules to make things less troublesome to people. For example, families with weddings planned soon are now being allowed to withdraw up to 2.5 lakhs.

However, it doesn’t mean nothing was done to prepare for it. The government had started the process of getting people to open Jan Dhan accounts as well getting UPI into action to try and keep disruption as minimal as possible.

8. The 2000 note will bring in more hoarding and black money

Weren’t you saying a while ago that there is hardly any black money?

9. Not prepared for a cashless economy

As stated earlier, Jan Dhan, UPI, all were set up specifically so that we could slowly gravitate to a cashless economy. Demonetisation was the catalyst required to facilitate the move.

10. Economic activity is tanking

Economic activity will suffer in the short run due to consumption being suppressed, but not in the long run. Ask any economist. This move would not have been possible without the RBI, whose Governor Urijit Patel is a a Harvard and Yale graduate.

A short passage on ‘introspection’ from a ‘right winger’ to ‘liberals’

Rahul Roushan
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A short passage on ‘introspection’ from a ‘right winger’ to ‘liberals’

“The meaning of nationalism has been reduced to a joke by fans of this regime. Anyone criticising the government is branded anti-national. This is a dangerous trend that can’t be good for healthy democracy at all.”

So said a self-declared liberal person. And it’s not a new grouse. This has been being repeated ever since the JNU incident came to light in the beginning of this year, where the government unwittingly made a lout like Kanhaiya Kumar a hero for the self-declared liberals.

The JNU incident hurt people like Rajdeep Sardesai so much that he declared himself an anti-national. The jibes about being anti-national and counter jibes at nationalism have been flowing fast and thick since then. Recently Filmmaker Anurag Kashap went “btw, Bharat mata ki jai”, and latest case is nationalism appearing even in debates on demonetisation.

I am not going to define nationalism or debate demonetisation here. In fact, I will start by saying that I agree with the self-declared liberal person who wrote what I quoted in the beginning of this article.

The jibe of “you are anti national” has indeed been over done by some, and on occasions, it has bordered on being ridiculous. Say, someone criticising the Modi government for not executing the demonetisation in a better fashion is by no stretch of imagination an anti-national.

In fact, even wanting to see Pakistani actors in Indian movies is not anti-national. It’s stupid, and maybe dangerously stupid, but not anti-national.

“Anti national” is a very serious term, and it shouldn’t be used casually. People on the so-called Right side of the ideological divide, where I have placed myself consciously, should realize it.

My liberal friend, what I just did was ‘introspection’.

An act that simply appears absent amongst your tribe. I had said the same a year ago in an article on my blog, and things have not changed since then. Ironically, it’s the “conservatives” who are supposed to not change with time, but in our country, “liberals” don’t change.

May I request you to just introspect a little for a change? Learn from the liberals in the US, who are indulging in such acts after Donald Trump won. But I suspect that you are more impressed with those who are shouting “Not My President” and are in the streets burning US flags.

Those who are introspecting realize that they went too far in labelling people racist, sexist, fascist, bigot, evil, et al, just because they agreed with Donal Trump on various issues. And that you can’t win over people by insulting them.

When I heard that, I felt that there is something for the Right here in India too to learn. We shouldn’t go too far in branding people “anti national” for everything.

But my liberal friend, have you for a second felt something similar? Have you ever introspected?

That just as you accuse fans of this regime of reducing “nationalism” to a joke, you could have been doing the same to a lot of terms, especially terms like “secularism”, “tolerance”, “progressive”, “social justice”, and of course, “liberalism”?

Just like your Rajdeep Sardesai, within a week, got so incensed that he declared “Yes, I am anti-national”, you can’t see why many, after putting up with your reductionism for years, started feeling “to hell with you, yes, I am communal right winger fascist”?

You find nationalism reduced to a joke just within nine months, while you’ve been reducing those terms to joke for decades now.

You will realize that if you take a break from labelling people regressive Sanghi and bigoted Bhakt for disagreeing, and indulge in a bit of introspection.

Do that for yourself. Do that for the nation. Perhaps that will be a nationalist thing to do?

How demonetisation was wrongly blamed for some unfortunate deaths

Rupa Subramanya
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How demonetisation was wrongly blamed for some unfortunate deaths

I’m embarrassed that I even have to write a piece like this but sadly what I’m about to analyse reflects the pathetic state of the media in India. In particular I’m reacting to a bizarre and ludicrous piece of propaganda alleging a relationship between currency demonetisation and deaths of individuals.

The piece by Deputy Editor of Huffington Post India, Shivam Vij, claims that “there have already been 33 deaths due to demonetisation in 6 days”. The author is thus asserting a causal relationship between the government’s demonetisation of high denomination notes and these deaths.

Vij goes on to cite thirty three cases which allegedly support his claim but it doesn’t take much to figure out, that one can’t establish in any credible way a causal relationship between demonetisation and an individual’s death in so many of these cases.

Start with one of the most ludicrous cases where a “businessman” in Faizabad, Uttar Pradesh allegedly felt chest pains and died soon after watching Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement of demonetisation on November 8. Are we supposed to believe that it was what he was watching that led to his death? So for example, if he were watching Star Wars, would we blame Darth Vader for his death?

Take the case of a 96-year-old man in Udupi, Karnataka who died allegedly waiting in a long queue in a bank. Guess what? The man’s son says his father’s death had nothing to do with waiting in queue at the bank. So this one is at best poor fact checking or poor attempt at propaganda by the author.

Up next, a 45-year-old man in Kerala dies while falling from a construction area in the bank branch where he was depositing money. He had already successfully deposited money the previous day at the same bank.  At best, you could blame lack of barricades that would have saved him falling but it’s more than a stretch to blame Modi and demonetisation.

It only gets bizarre from here. An elderly woman in Kanpur died apparently counting currency notes. Tragic, but had she died while reading the newspaper, presumably this intrepid journalist would blame the newspaper for her death?

How about an elderly person who didn’t even have to wait in a queue but collapsed of a heart attack upon reaching the bank? If he’d collapsed outside a movie theatre would this journalist blame the movie that was screened for his death? And even here, the man’s two sons say he had a pre-existing medical condition, wasn’t even standing in line and his death had nothing to do with demonetisation. The family has also expressed anger that their father’s death has been wrongly linked to demonetisation by the media.

Or how about a 45-year-old cashier in Bhopal who collapsed while working at the bank. The spin is he died overworked because of demonetisation but not a shred of evidence is offered to back this up.

A 17-year-old, son of a Border Security Force jawan allegedly commits suicide because his mother wouldn’t give him small denomination notes. There’s almost no limit to the implausible connections this writer can draw.

A couple have already been debunked. Consider where a doctor says she had to turn away parents of a sick baby not because they were carrying demonetised notes but she just didn’t have the right equipment to treat the baby. As it happens this doctor is now the subject of a First Information Report.

In another case a wife is allegedly taunted by her husband for her “inability” to stand in a queue at an ATM. She apparently commits suicide and her husband is now the subject of an investigation in abetting her suicide. So let’s get this straight. A possibly abusive husband taunts his wife for not waiting in queue at the mandi, is the vendor now the cause of what played out subsequently?

You get the idea. In each of these cases, someone dies, shortly after demonetisation but there’s no credible causal link between the two events. Also many of these stories have only a single source suggesting perhaps the version of the stories presented didn’t seem entirely credible even to other news organisations.

As I remarked at the outset, it’s embarrassing that one even needs to debunk such tripe. Any death is tragic but it’s shameful and scandalous that they’re wrongly linked to demonetisation, no less than from an international media house like Huffington Post.

That the Huffington Post does not like demonetisation is clear from pieces on the subject such as “Why the demonetisation drive violates our fundamental right to life” as shown below.

Huffington Post India on Demonetisation
So Supreme Court refused to intervene is something that was unconstitutional?

This is clearly not journalism nor is it even good propaganda. But that’s the Indian media scene for you.

(Written by Rupa Subramanya, who is an Economist and Columnist. Follow her @rupasubramanya)

Ravish Kumar hides a trader’s Congress affiliation in a bid to attack Demonetisation

OpIndia Staff
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Ravish Kumar hides a trader’s Congress affiliation in a bid to attack Demonetisation

Ravish Kumar, the NDTV India anchor, who claims to be the gold-standard in reporting, has landed in yet another controversy. In a bid to show how the demonetisation scheme was hurting businessmen, Ravish Kumar tried to pull off a fast one, but was caught in the act.

In his show he introduced an Ajay Arora as the head of Traders Association of Delhi, all the while forgetting to mention his Congress background. All this came to light via this expose


The video starts with Ravish in a bid to maintain his neutral image defended the demonetisation scheme from some disgruntled men. As the video progressed a crowd gathered around Ravish which very vocally starts supporting Modi and his demonetisation scheme. Suddenly the scene cuts to a terrace where Ravish was found standing with a mere 5-7 people. He explained the reason behind the location change was to get away from all the ‘Bheed-bhaad’. Incidentally in the opening scene of the video Ravish was heard commenting about how the area lacked it’s usual hustle and bustle.

Ravish then introduced Ajay Arora as the head of the Traders Association of Delhi. Arora then proceeded to bash the government’s scheme with a vengeance, by lamenting about the immense hardships he and other traders are facing, the men accompanying him also echoed his viewpoint.

Ajay Arora with Ajay Maken
Ajay Arora with Ajay Maken

The whole report was called into question when Tajinder Bagga searched the facebook profile of the eminent trader association head, Ajay Arora and found him to be the convener of All Delhi Traders Congress and in one of his photos was seen sharing the stage with Delhi congress chief Ajay Maken.

After a bit of digging we managed to find some Facebook posts which might cement Arora’s congress links. The first one shows Arora standing next to Ajay Maken during some fogging program and the second one shows him being part of Trader’s Congress’s “vasooli diwas” accompanied with people who were wearing Congress party’s Gandhi topis. These Facebook posts also might clear the air that the Congress in All Delhi Traders Congress refers to the Political party and is not a synonym to an ‘Association’.

All of the above facts were probably missed by Ravish Kumar during his research.

This is not the first time Ravish has been caught of misreporting facts, OpIndia.com had earlier reported how Ravish Kumar in his blog ‘I am not a super journalist’ twice distorted facts to discredit Kiran Bedi.

Latest rumour in the market debunked: SBI has waived off Mallya’s and other defaulters’ loans

Gaurav
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Latest rumour in the market debunked: SBI has waived off Mallya’s and other defaulters’ loans

The demonetisation scheme is in full swing. Numerous attempts to stall it have failed, with even the Supreme Court refusing to step in. We have already busted over 20 rumours about the scheme. What does the media do now? Bring up some irrelevant fact, twist it, and present it in context of the current scheme to incite passions. This is much like what Arvind Kejriwal did when he claimed the increase in deposits in September 2016 was related to demonetisation (which we had debunked here).

It started with this story in DNA, titled: “SBI writes off loans of 63 wilful defaulters”. While the headline is not totally off the mark, the report is completely off track (emphasis added):

India’s largest public sector bank has dropped more than Rs 7,000 crore, more than 80 per cent of the amount owed to it by its top 100 defaulters, into the Advance Under Collection Account (AUCA) bin for toxic loans. With efforts to recover its dues hitting a virtual dead-end, the State Bank of India (SBI) seems to be have started a clean-up of its balance sheets by writing off loans worth about Rs 7,016 crore owed to it by more than 60 of its top 100 wilful defaulters.

Towards the report did mention the real nature of AUCA accounts and write offs, but no-one seemed to have noticed that. And based on the headline and the initial misleading part, the outrage industry started, led by journalists:

Deputy Resident editor of The Hindu, quoted a tweet by Senior Asst editor of The Hindu, which first conflated “write-off” with “waiver”


Followed by another journalist:


And another:


And this deluded abusive journalist:


Once journalists had set the stage, politicians jumped in, a Congress spokesperson and the CPIM General Secretary:


So has SBI really waived off these loans? Not really. For this we need to understand what write-offs are. A balance sheet should reflect the real situation, not imaginary assets like the balance sheet created by Ramalinga Raju. And that’s why Banks have to write off loans. If they don’t write off loans, it is like claiming to hold an asset (loans given by banks, are assets of the bank) where none exists. Will you trust an entity that doesn’t give the true picture of its assets?

Hence write-offs are a purely technical, accounting entry. Write-offs give a true picture of the bank’s assets (loans given) and the income there on (interest). Accounts where prospects of recovery is bleak, are technically written off from the live ledgers and parked in AUCA in accordance with laid down instructions. Most write offs, irrespective of outstanding, should be treated as technical write offs and parked in AUCA and recovery process of these accounts will continue till resolution of these accounts (pdf link).

Even when accounts are written off, various recovery procedures like recovery suits  filed before the DRT/ Court. and action initiated under SARFAESI Act continue. Accounts held in AUCA may be taken up for dropping only after exhausting all avenues of recovery, hence merely transferring an account to AUCA is not a “waiver of the loan”.

So a write off mean the loan has been waived? Definitely not. Unless of course you are a media person with low IQ or a politician with an agenda, or a politician with low IQ or a journalist with an agenda.

Update: It was brought to our notice that a similar case of media misreporting had occurred in February 2016 also, and back then, the RBI had issued a clarification stating exactly what we have explained above:

RBI’s old clarification, which failed to educate our journalists
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