On 23 January 2014, when the United Progressive Alliance was in power, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued a notification stating that all banknotes issued prior to 2005 would be withdrawn from circulation. The RBI clarified in its notification that the pre-2005 notes would continue to be legal tender, and could be exchanged at bank counters for new notes. (It did not specify a deadline for this exchange.) The move was widely reported as an effort on the part of the RBI to curb fake currency notes, as well as black money, because the new notes had additional security features. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the opposition party at the time, criticised the move as “anti-poor,” alleging that it would not curb black money, and would instead hurt those who did not have access to banking services.

Similar criticism has been levelled against the BJP government since 8 November 2016, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the high-denomination notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 would be demonetised. The decision caused millions of people across the country to rush to banks and ATMs over the next few days, and stand in lines for hours on end in order to exchange or withdraw cash. Various others, especially those in rural areas, experienced a severe cash crunch, as they were unable to procure new currency. Arvind Kejriwal referred to the move as a “surgical strike on the common man’s savings.” Rahul Gandhi tweeted that Modi had showed “how little he cared” about ordinary people such as farmers, small shopkeepers, and housewives. However, on 18 November, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said he didn’t think the move “could have better executed.” On 19 November, the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS), the farmer’s wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the parent organisation of the BJP, wrote to Modi and Jaitley seeking their intervention into the problems being faced by farmers due to lack of new currency. On 21 November, the government announcedthat farmers could purchase seeds with the demonetised 500-rupee notes. The RSS had, until then, maintained a silence on the demonetisation. On 24 November, the RSS issued a statement hailing the move to be in “national interest” and a “noble endeavour.”

On 18 November, a day before the BKS wrote to Modi and Jaitley, I met senior members of the RSS’s farmers’ wing, labour wing, and economics wing, and enquired about their views on demonetisation. When I questioned them on the implementation of the move, they appeared to unanimously support the government’s decision, but shifted blame for any problems in various directions—including politicians, crop buyers, and the media.

Virjesh Upadhyay, the general secretary of Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), the labour wing of the RSS, told me that the queues forming outside the banks and ATMs following the demonetisation were fake. “Ye sab fabricated report aa rahi hain. Sahi jankari nahi hai”—these reports that are coming in are fabricated. It’s not correct information, he said. Upadhyay alleged that the labourers were picked up from the labour adda—hub—of every city and paid to stand in queues. “Ye neta log, chhut bhaiyye log la rahen hain unko. Kuch 100-100 rupaye, 500-500 rupaye de rahen hain”—politicians and their sidekicks are bringing labourers to stand in the queues. The labourers are given Rs 100 or Rs 500. “Kya hai, inko bheed dikhana hai”—the thing is, they have to show that there’s a large crowd, he said.

I asked Upadhyay who he thought would hire labourers to create a false impression of long queues. He said, “Politicians log hai aur ye bhains khane wale log hai”—the politicians and those who eat beef.