Dear Modi Ji, You Have Killed the Hopes of an Aspiring Businessman

“Dear Modi ji, I beg you to relieve my fellow Indians of their miseries,” writes a small businessman from Kolkata.

Dear Modi ji,

I am a final year B.Tech student of Pailan College of Management and Technology, Kolkata. I have been working for the past five years to support my parents, siblings and my education.

I am a reseller of used mobile phones which I purchase using cash. The demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes has shut down my business completely.

Suddenly from an aspiring independent entrepreneur, who wasn’t bothered about campus placements or climbing the corporate ladder, my hopes have died down with this sudden financial emergency, thanks to you Modi ji.

All of my co-students (195 to be accurate) have been dreaming about getting placed in the best of companies, but not me.

Thank you Modi ji, with this demonetisation step you have killed the hopes of small aspiring businesses like mine.

'How Does One Go on Without the Basic Needs?'

The poor and the middle class are the ones facing the wrath of this policy announcement.

Who are these people queuing outside banks or ATMs for hours every single day since 9 November? Workers from the unorganised sector, farmers, labourers, domestic helps, drivers, etc. Most of them are unaware of how a bank functions and in this age of ‘Digital India’, many still don’t have access to their personal bank accounts.

How will those without access to banking and the internet survive without being able to access the basic necessities? Through Paytm? Or will they buy food from online supermarkets like BigBasket or Grofers?

The other day, I heard a domestic help say to another woman:

“Sirf 2.5 lakh hi badal paenge humlog bank se... Baaki ke paise raddi hogye.” (We will only be able to exchange Rs 2.5 lakh from the bank and the rest of the money is all waste.)

This is how misinformed people are. Especially the ones who do not have access to television or the internet.

'Relieve Us of Our Misery'

Dear Modi ji, you had asked the nation for 50 days.

Within ten days, millions have starved, and many lost their lives, waiting in lines or out of shock. Thousands of patients are unable to receive treatment as all private hospitals and medical centres have refused to accept old currency notes. Will these patients survive these fifty days?

Modi ji, why don’t you stand with us in these queues for one day, or wait the whole night outside an ATM? Because only then will you understand the pain of the commoners.

I beg you to relieve my fellow Indians of their miseries.

Regards,

Abdullah Khan

(The author is a student and a businessman from Kolkata. This is a personal blog and the views expressed above are the author’s own.The Quint neither endorses, nor is responsible for the same.)