Mitron, stop politicking, rebuild economy

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday gave a sagacious advice to PM Modi: "Rebuild economy, stop politicking."

The advice came in an interview to Bloomberg Quint news agency. Singh underlined that the impact of demonetisation "on the weaker sections of our society and business is far more damaging than any economic indicator can reveal."

His interview comes two days ahead of the first anniversary of demonetisation that the Congress and other opposition parties are to observe as a "Black Day."

He further asked his successor to work towards consensual policy solutions to rebuild the Indian economy. "I strongly feel the time for politicking over demonetisation is over. It is time the Prime Minister graciously acknowledges the blunder and seeks support from all to rebuild our economy."

Singh expressed concern regarding the loss of jobs in the small and medium enterprises sector and also emphasised the exacerbating impact that it may have on inequality.

He said demonetisation may exacerbate such inequalities which will be harder to rectify in the future. In such a diverse country such as ours, inequality can prove to be a far greater social malaise than in other homogeneous nations.

The Modi government has often explained the demonetisation move as an effort to reduce cash-based transactions and nudge the economy towards digital payments. Singh agrees that these objectives are certainly "laudable pursuits," but "we also need to get our economic priorities right." He said: "It is unclear that these goals of cashless economy will indeed help small enterprises become larger and achieve scale efficiencies. That should be our priority."