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Demonetization as despotism
December 28, 2016
A distinguished Ugandan social scientist of Indian origin,whom I
happened to meet earlier this month at an academic conference, told me
that Narendra Modi's demonetization reminded him of the fiat in 1972 of
the Ugandan dictator, Idi Amin, that all Asians should quit Uganda
within a period of three months. His analogy, of course, would be
considered inapposite for an obvious reason: expelling people from their
places of domicile, as Amin did, is certainly a more inhumane act than
snatching away people's purchasing power as has happened in India; and
this remains true, even when the victims in the former case are
relatively more affluent compared to those in the latter case, and
number only a few thousand, compared to crores in the latter case. But
his analogy is apt in another sense: both fiats are instances of extreme
unreason.
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