In the headlong pursuit of a completely digitalized economy some fundamental truths have been denied or distorted by the media and replaced with popular myths:

I MYTH: Digitalization is a feature of advanced economies. Less developed countries should be moving toward it.

FACT: According to the Wall Street Journal, 80 percent of German transactions are in cash, while in the US, the figure is 32%. Hoarding of cash is common where negative interest rates prevail or are threatened by the government. Hoarding occurs widely in Switzerland and Japan.

FACT: Digitalization is a BUG, not a feature, of advanced economies. It is digitalization that enables the banking system to manipulate people’s financial habits. The aggressive marketing of debit and credit cards traps unwary consumers into greater and greater indebtedness.

II MYTH: Income from non-criminal activities hidden from the tax-man is as “black” as income from immoral, criminal, or subversive activity hidden from the tax-man.

FACT:   Merchants and traders who hide their money from the tax-man are simply not anti-social elements like terrorists or drug-peddlers. For one thing,  merchants do pay other taxes besides income taxes. Secondly, since they are self-employed and create jobs, they act as the engine of the real economy, from which the professional and bureaucratic classes derive their own income.  Many would not remain in business if they had to comply with the regulatory and tax burden imposed by the government, not only for financial reasons but because such transparency would compromise their trade secrets and expose them to business theft, very likely from the corrupt nexus of big business and the state.  Third, having a large part of the economy based in cash protects the whole economy from the direct manipulation of global finance capital.  Rather than eliminating the cash-based kulaks, the rest of India should be emulating them.

III MYTH

Demonetization is a temporary “inconvenience” that a patriotic Indian must put up with for the greater good.

FACT: Expropriating the savings  of people across the board for WHATEVER scheme, even if it were the most brilliantly conceived and executed,  is a monstrous act, unique in the annals of constitutional republics with a functioning judiciary and press.

And expropriation it is. The notes theoretically are being “exchanged.” In practice, people cannot withdraw their own money for living or business expenses beyond stringent limits, and this state of affairs is likely to last for at least 7-9 months, if not longer. Those businesses and individuals that cannot survive with these restrictions have been eliminated. Permanently. Whole industries are closing down. The country is extremely vulnerable to foreign military attack or embargo in this state.

On top of that, the demo has set off a huge migration of the population back to the villages.

Modi now claims that that was his intention all along. (Adding a third explanatory layer to his constantly revised narrative about black money).

But explanations are redundant at this point.

It is shocking that an Indian PM even suggests that such a sweeping, radical project can be imposed unilaterally, no matter what the cost.

Such a utilitarian calculus, sacrificing whomever the PM wishes to whatever vision he thinks is necessary, is no better than that employed by Hitler, Stalin, Mao or any other totalitarian dictator from the right or left.

It is an assault on the people’s right to property and life in the most fundamental way.

Shame on the media for covering this fact over with phony rhetoric about “poor planning” and “poor implementation.”

Carpet-bombing an entire nation in ostensible pursuit of a handful of terrorists is a war-crime, irrespective of its planning or execution.

It is genocidal in effect.

So is seizing an entire economy’s cash supply.