Social media is abuzz that this year’s Nobel Economics prize winner Richard Thaler had backed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s demonetisation move when it was announced. But wait, there is more to the story.
Back in November 2016, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced his decision to scrap all the Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes in circulation, Thaler praised the move saying that it was a “policy he had long supported”.
After he was announced the Nobel winner, members of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) went all out to share Thaler’s tweet on demonetisation asserting that the move which was heavily criticised by the members of the opposition was supported by a Nobel Prize for economics winner. The BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya wasted no time in retweeting the old tweet.
But the BJP was in for a rude shock after Twitterati brought it to their notice that the Nobel laureate had also questioned the issuance of Rs 2,000 notes.
“Really? Damn,” Thaler had tweeted when he was told about the introduction of Rs. 2,000 notes in place of the discontinued Rs. 500 and 1,000 notes, which meant his joy of seeing a step towards a cashless economy and reduction of corruption was short-lived.
Sure enough, not just BJP supporters but BJP leaders fell for the incomplete picture presented by Malviya and tweeted about it. This included Union Minister Giriraj Singh, former BJP IT Cell Head Arvind Gupta and many others.
Eventually Railways Minister Piyush Goyal ended up retweeting Malviya’s tweet, before un-retweeting it when the issue was brought to his attention.
Twitterati wasted no time in highlighting the fact that the full context of Thaler’s statement on demonetisation was not being shown.
On November 8, Prime Minister Modi announced that the government was banning Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes in a bid to promote cashless economy and control corruption. The move invited criticism from several quarters with a number of people from the Congress Party blaming the Prime Minister for the economic slowdown.
However, some users also pointed out how the Rs 2000 note was a temporary solution for remonetisation and its printing has been stopped.
(Feature Image Source: Youtube)