Demonetisation was the kind of “misadventure” by the government which should not be forgiven, senior journalist and writer Udayan Mukherjee said in an interview recently.

Demonetisation was the kind of “misadventure” by the government which should not be forgiven, senior journalist and writer Udayan Mukherjee said in an interview recently. Calling India’s macroeconomic situation “quite shaky”, he said, that the government has failed on many fronts such as the job creation.

“…it’s one thing to try something, and because of many other issues, it not coming off. But it’s quite another to bring it on yourself the misadventures like demonetisation etc, which, I don’t think, the government should be forgiven for,” Mukherjee said in an interview with Vir Sanghvi for News18.

The former CNBC-TV18 managing editor said that had demonetisation happened in another developed country, the government would have been booted out of power. “It was a reckless, bold move that failed spectacularly,” he added.

Thursday will mark the second anniversary of demonetisation. On November 8, 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a televised address to the nation, announced the ban on notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 to weed out black money, which many economists argue did not happen.

On being asked how the economy was doing, Mukherjee said, “Very badly… the only thing, the government wants people to focus on is GDP number and, sometimes, Sensex. But that is not the Indian economy all about.”

I think the macro picture of India is quite shaky right now, which is causing a lot of turbulence in many quarters including the market, he said, adding that people have a sense that it did not work out the government wanted when it came to power.

The government is currently facing a lot of challenges from depreciation in the rupee to higher crude oil prices, which are putting immense pressure on India’s current account deficit.

With all these macroeconomic problems popping up just a few months before elections, triggered by higher crude oil prices, Mukherjee said that the government will now try to divert the public’s attention to non-economic issues.

The oil prices, however, in the past few days, have retreated following Saudi Arabia’s indication of higher supply in the coming months and the US Iran sanctions waiver to eight countries.