Last week, former Indian finance minister P.Chidambaram said "not a single economist worldwide has approved the demonetization in India 2016
On November 08, 2016, Indian Prime minister made a sudden announcement that Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes will be invalid from November 09, 2016. The Indian government plan was to destroy all black money/unpaid taxes hidden by Indians in cash in the form of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes.
Indian people were given time till November 23, 2016 to exchange the old currency notes at all the banks in India. So there were long queues outside Banks for depositing money and also withdrawing money. I was in the queue at the bank for 2 hours and 30 minutes.
Later Indian Congress leader 'Rahul Gandhi" said "91 people had died in queues outside banks and ATMs" which was the result of sudden announcement by PM Narendra Modi.
Prime Minister "Narendra Modi" is very proud of his actions
2016 is not a long period from now and there is need for discussion like this to be done in other to put in perspective the consequences of decisions made by the people we elect to represent us and make decisions on our behalf.
Whether the death toll is 33, 91, 108 or 5. Such decisions are not meant to take any life and even if one life is lost, its too expensive which shows the deficiency in such decision which include among other reasons the timing that is given to carry out the exercise and at the end of the day its the poor people that would be affected as they are the ones who are not connected with bankers or know people in high places in other to facilitate the exchange process seamlessly.
I have read about a country that changed its currency over night because they were having civil war and needed to render the other side useless with the currency they have amassed to pursue the war. Others have been about corruption after huge stash of money have been kept by corrupt individuals at the expense of the populace but in situations like this, there is always a proper and process put in place to avoid such calamity as a result of their good intentions.