Prof B M Hegde By

Demonetisation. This epochmaking single decision by our beloved Prime Minister is something that is unprecedented in the political life of India and will, for sure, change the face of India from a corrupt country to a country of honest people and take us back to the days when people looked up to India for honesty and justice. What a master stroke! What a vision and the mission to implement it! This is called political mastery over the country’s ills. Such persons are born once in a century. The way he administered the blow on the black money hoarders with such finesse baffles even brilliant political minds. To keep a secret even inside one’s house needs lots of courage and manipulations. To accomplish it in India is almost a divine task. Hasn’t he done well? Give him a big hand, my countrymen, irrespective of your political leanings and your other clannish ideas. It is irritating to see Opposition leaders cry hoarse even here.

Rare voices of sanity and honesty, of my friends Nitish Kumar, the CM of Bihar, and Naveen Patnaik, the CM of Odisha, stand out as rays of hope for a constructive Opposition which is a healthy sign in a democracy. I would have thought that a healthy Opposition is a hallmark of democracy. The Opposition must be with the government in such matters of national and international dimensions. On the contrary, our Opposition groups are, disparate as they are, all united in their “Wall Street greed” to keep their hoarded loot to win elections by buying votes. Shame on them. Some of them were shell-shocked even to react sensibly. Let them not forget that an ordinary Indian is very intelligent and can see through their drama of crocodile tears. The common man is happy about our prime minister’s bold step. They are with him in this great revolution.

Every new change is fraught with some difficulties and teething trouble. So did the demonetisation. Since most Indians lived in the cash economy, demonetisation did cause them some hardship but they are prepared for it for their long-term good. Stone pelting stopped in Kashmir the same day the old notes became useless. Terrorism has come down. Naxal violence and local goons have all but disappeared. Much remains to be accomplished. The brilliant brains that hoard money to run a parallel economy are the brightest. They will, I am sure, eventually come up with novel ideas about that but that will take time. The government should be alert in the interim to derail their nefarious designs. On the surface of it, the Rs 2000 note could be a danger there. I am sure our prime minister has something up his sleeve to overcome that.

Modiji’s mind works overtime nonstop. Our so-called Opposition parties, who are taken by surprise, have been opposing it just for the heck of opposing it. If this does not deserve a Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, what does? If one knows the history of the prize, one would wonder if this is possible as only wrong people get the Nobel. One example will suffice. In the year 2002, Vernon Smith and Daniel Kahneman got the Nobel for their paper Homo Altruisticus saying that all human beings are hardwired to be altruistic and they are all good, based on a study of Chicago’s stock exchange experiments. This was far from the reality in this world where people cheat one another at the drop of a hat. A young unusually brilliant professor at the same Chicago University, John Little, had serious doubts about this study’s veracity. He faithfully repeated the same experiment with one singular difference.

He told the experiment subjects at the Chicago Stock Exchange that he will not be observing them on a daily basis as was done by his predecessors! He will meet them at the end of the year to take stock. To his surprise, he found that everyone cheated everyone when no observer was overseeing them! He wrote a paper, Homo Economicus, saying that most of us are cheats when not observed by others. Our prime minister knows that the Indian culture teaches us to be honest and walk our talk. If we say that we are pure, we must see that we are pure. The Nobel committee picks up the wrong paper of Vernon Smith et al. So much for the authenticity of the Nobel Prize! However, I am hoping against hope that the Nobel Committee will pick up my nomination of our prime minister this season for the prize for his Modinomics. We hope that now the Indian elections will be demonetised. I was told that the UP elections were going for Rs 5000-10000 per vote. What a shame! Will the powers that be, the election commission and the like, sit up and take note? This is an opportunity for them to cleanse the election stables for the first time with the help of this new measure by Modi. I am reminded of a warning about corruption ruling the nation, attributed to Abraham Lincoln.

Our prime minister has taken lessons from those, like Lincoln, who tried to warn us about the danger: “I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. Corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money-power of the country will endeavour to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.” (Abraham Lincoln in a letter reportedly sent to Col. William F Elkins, November 21, 1864) Even the journey of 1000 miles starts with the first step. Modi has taken that bold first step; let us walk on that path to take India to its golden era. God save the country.

Prof B M Hegde Cardiologist & former vice chancellor of Manipal University

Email: hegdebm@gmail.com