On 8 November 2016, at 8:00 PM IST, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that four hours from his declaration, all 500 and 1000 rupees notes would be devalued. At the stroke of the midnight hour, India awoke to an unexpected tryst with demonetization. An incisive and insightful take on the issue, Pankaj Sharma and Saurav Sanyal’s book gives agency to the ordinary Indian voters, the ‘torchbearers of democracy’. Going beyond the idea of the citizen as a mere recipient of the government’s edicts or munificence, the authors focus on the power of the common man as a voter and the repercussions of demonetization on the upcoming 2019 general elections in India.
In 2019, will demonetization be seen as the waterloo of Modi or will he emerge stronger and even more powerful? In dissecting the political implications of demonetization, the authors espouse a varied yet nuanced approach. From discussing the role of human psychology in making political choices to a search for an on-the-ground sentiment in determining the factors of influence, Sharma and Sanyal leave no stone unturned in analysing demonetization as the political issue for the future of Indian democracy.