WhyWestern media is criticising Modi's demonetisation drive The note ban has destroyed the PM's carefully crafted image and the India story. By Ashok Swain
and using both constitutional means and Hindutva footsol- diers to suppress religious freedom.
Narendra Modi’s abrupt decision on November 8 to inval- idate 86 per cent of the value of cash in circulation in the country has caused immense hardship and terrible pain to millions of Indians, mostly from the poorer section of society. Nearly 100 people have died due to this whimsical admin- istrative decision and no one knows when the misery will end, if it will end at all. However, with this decision, Modi has lost his talisman, which had helped him get an interna- tional image makeover, from a bigot to a builder. No other democratic regime has ever taken a cash ban deci- sion of this magnitude. Only some authoritarian regimes like the Soviet Union, Zaire, Libya, Zimbabwe, Myanmar and Nigeria were forced to do this to control spiralling inflation in their countries, but failed miserably to achieve the stated fiscal objectives. So, when Modi suddenly imposed his draconian demoneti- sation drive, India watchers in the West were too stunned to react immediately. A majority of the international media has repeatedly taken Modi to task for his utter disregard for human rights, crude use of state machinery for censoring critics, trying all tricks to undermine the independence and power of the judiciary,
However, the international community was ignoring to take note of this rising anti-democratic fascist tendency in India and was still buying Modi’s development story for its own business interest. With China’s decline in economic growth, India had emerged as the world’s fastest growing economy and a huge potential source of new business. Thus, Modi had been able to make world leaders look like, as Time maga- zine had described last year, “teenage boys drooling over the homecoming queen”. Since 2007, Modi has been meticulously branding himself as the messiah of development. By hyping the "Gujarat Model", his hired agencies in the West had helped him get an image makeover to hide his robust record on bigotry. Even before the 2014 election, influential international news media like The New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Economist and Guardian have been carry- ing reports and editorials regularly disapproving of Modi and his brand of majoritarian politics. But, the business newspapers had still pinned their hopes on his promised economic growth and hooked to the promised India story. Even Wall Street Journal till recently was describing Modi as India’s best hope for economic renaissance. Not only the Wall Street Journal, Forbes and Financial Times were downplaying the fast deterioration of India's secular democratic character under Modi’s watch, in the hope of India’s possible economic "miracle". In the immediate aftermath of Modi’s cash ban decision, these international business news heavyweights like most others were clueless about the impact and went on to buy the official spin that it will curb the country’s menacing
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Open House Special 2016
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