Demonetisation and Gujaratis

There are several similarities between Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement of withdrawal of ~500 and ~1,000 currency notes and the 1978 demonetisation exercise of then prime minister Morarji Desai (pictured). The first is that both prime ministers hail from Gujarat, though Desai had made Mumbai his home. The Gujarat connection doesn’t end there. The present Reserve Bank of India Governor Urjit Patel is also a Gujarati, and the then governor I G Patel, too, was Gujarati. Unlike Modi, Desai had one more Gujarati — the then finance minister H M Patel — on his team.