WHERE IS URJIT PATEL?

By Ruma Dubey

“I have got the new Rs.2000 note but what is the guarantee that this too will one day not get banned? Should we keep notes or no???”

These and many more questions like these are what people at the very low and lower strata are asking us, the middle and upper middle class. The housemaid, the driver, the garbage man, the vegetable vendor, the ironing man, the taxiwallah, the milkman…so many of these support systems we have are a scared lot. It is one thing for us to say nonchalantly that this demonetization was needed, we support it and was the right thing to do. But those at these lower levels, including the millions of farmers across India, 99% of which receive payments only in cash, this demonetization has shaken their very faith in the Indian currency. What is the guarantee that the current notes will not get scrapped one day?

What has also put a very bad scare is the fact that they are not getting their own money from the bank. They queue up and find that they cannot get enough to even get their daughter married. This fear, of bank’s showing high-handedness with people’s own money has also caused a deep loss of faith. They do not care if the GDP gets affected or FIIs sell off; for them the crisis right now is that they do not have enough money and they do not know whether this will change. The current crisis will abate; it is a temporary thing. Q3 and some parts of Q4 are sure to see this pain but FY17 will be very good thus things will get corrected. But what will not just take a few quarters but maybe months to restore is the faith of majority of people in the currency.

And this is why we ask the question, rather scream out the question, “Where is Urjit Patel?”

Indeed, this is a very unique situation, not witnessed by most of us in our lifetimes till date. What Modi did was the right thing but it was probably done in such a sloppy manner that it has become a logistical nightmare.

The piquant scenario is that Urjit Patel is simply not visible. Apart from that one appearance, the day on which this was announced, we have neither seen not heard from him. Why? This is a question which not just some of us but many abroad are also wondering about.

The core duty of the RBI is to maintain the supply of money – the balance of M1, M2 and M3. When that is shaken up, isn’t it the duty of the RBI Governor to come out and assure one and all that the RBI is right on top of the situation? Urjit Patel needs to come out and issue statements in person, telling us all about how the situation is, how much scarcity of notes is currently being replenished and by when he expects things to normalize. We understand that all this was done in complete secrecy but are we then saying that when this move was mooted, no one thought through the repercussions? Why couldn’t this have been planned in a much better way?

Does the Governor come out only when it is Credit Policy time and issue a terse statement, without entertaining too much questions from the media and scoot? If one blamed the previous Governor for getting too media savvy, why is it that Urjit Patel is not sharing the blame for not being visible at all?

If Rajan had done this, there would have been speculation that he was not supportive of the Govt’s move and is hence not visible; should we draw the same inference for Patel too?

The face of this demonetization is Modi and it is a move taken by the Govt but the country needs to know what RBI is doing to mitigate this crisis. This stoic silence from the Governor is just not acceptable. And no one else in the media seems to have voiced this anomaly or find anything wrong here?