As December 30 ended yesterday, Goans could look
back at the past 52 days starting November 8, when
demonetisation was announced, as the most unusual
and the most unexpected in a really long time.
The first few days of November bring a relief from
the scorching heat of October in Goa and the mood turns joyous
because November signals the start of tourism season.
As November reaches an end and brings December, everyone
starts preparing to have a gala time during Christmas and New
Year. Only that this year it was a lot different. The temperatures
did dip in November and the trees bloomed with flowers
as well. But caught in the frantic hunt for an ATM which had
cash and a bank with a shorter queue for depositing old notes,
people had little time to indulge in weather-shifts.
A large number of Goans are used to hosting relatives and
friends living abroad in November and December. The reality
for them had indeed turned
stranger than fiction as rather than
spending time with their loved
ones, they were made to wait endlessly
in bank queues to withdraw
cash. Demonetisation for them was
the rudest systematic shock, which
disturbed decades old ways of living.
No one was spared, as everyone
from rich to poor was at the receiving end.
Travel agents did their best to counsel foreign tourists, who
were caught totally unawares, as demonetisation forced then
to withdraw not more than Rs 2,500 every day through an ATM
even though it’s not always possible to have a good vacation
with a sum so little. Shacks, taxi-drivers and restaurants allowed
a number of foreign tourists, who are their regulars, to
pay later, and in some cases to pay next year. In short, demonetisation
forced people to rely on each other more than they
rely on financial system and by doing so it tested the ability
of Goa’s society to maintain peace and harmony in tough conditions.
It must be said that Goa fared really well, as no incident
of violence or damage to public property was reported
in the state unlike other parts of India, where stray incidents
did take place. Goan society and Indian, by and large, showed
that it could withstand the litmus test of demonetisation. And
now, it is up to the rulers to prove that demonetisation indeed
brought the guilty hoarding black money to the book!
The last date for exchanging notes has passed and the government
has to tell us if this exercise was worth all the trouble. In
that sense Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address today is a
much awaited event.
