HASAN GHIAS | Caravan Daily
THE road to hell may be paved with good intentions, but it is lies that pave the short cut to damnation. And when lies masquerade as good intentions, then we are surely on the fast track to purgatory. That is where we seem to be, thanks to five and a half years of a dispensation that promised ‘sabka saath, sabka vikas’, delivering neither.
What was delivered instead was the greatest act of public betrayal since independence, deceitfully packaged as a panacea for the afflictions of corruption, counterfeit currency and black money. In reality, demonetization was a demon that eviscerated the entrails of the economy sending it into a tailspin.
While the rich found back-door ways of turning their old currency notes into new, the poor waited endlessly in queues to exchange their meager savings, some even dying in the ordeal. It was a cruel act portrayed as a miracle cure for the nation’s economic ills. What was presented as a healing potion turned out to be poison. Just as the much touted black money stashed abroad did not show up as a fifteen lakh credit in each Indian’s bank account, so also the advertised benefits of demonetization proved illusory. That demonetization was a disaster is not in doubt; the extent of the damage is still unfolding.
And universal darkness buries all.” ( Alexander Pope)
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Hasan Ghias comes from India and has had a long and successful career as a senior business executive in the Gulf. He is a Sloan Fellow of the London Business School and an Advanced Leadership Fellow of Harvard University