Post-demonetisation, cash did the Houdini vanishing trick at ATMs. With currency notes playing hide and seek, life was sheer misery. Things improved a bit, but the situation is back to square one. The ATMs are running dry, yet again.

Rajiv Bajaj, scion of the family that makes hugely popular two-wheelers, hit the nail on the head when he said: “If the solution or the idea is right, it will go like a hot knife through butter. If the idea is not working, for example demonetisation, don’t blame execution. I think your idea itself is wrong.”

He was clearly frustrated with the scrapping of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes on November 8 that triggered a huge crises and forced people to stand in serpentine queues for long hours.

When a business honcho speaks, it is time to listen carefully.

“If your innovation in the country depends on government approval or judicial process, it will not be a case of ‘Made in India’, but ‘Mad in India’. After five years, we are still waiting for permission to sell our four-wheeler in the country,” he said.

Bajaj has a good reason to be worried. Following demonetisation, the sale of vehicles, including two-wheelers, went south. Bajaj Auto’s total domestic sales were down, something Rajiv Bajaj must be finding hard to digest.

He has given a voice to millions who have been wondering for the past few weeks, why demonetisation. The promise of flushing out black money was a dud. The goal posts were shifted. The idea was to turn the country into a cashless society. That too did not happen.
The queues at the cash just show that people still want to use cash, a perfectly valid currency. If the government is finding this hard to understand, then let the top politicians and officials stand in the queue at ATMs to help them understand why the common person is upset with demonetisation.

In fact, it will be wonderful to have a VVIP in our midst, which will make a great photo-op to click a selfie, and brag about it on FB, WhatsApp, Twitter.

Any VVIP up for it.