Master stroke or Populist propaganda?

Everyone needs to calm the fuck down with the Old High Denomination currency withdrawal scheme!

No doubt the move was ballsy, and announced very abruptly, targeted towards eliminating / reducing black money, but was it really a masterstroke or an exaggerated sensationalism by Modi Ji?

Consider the following situations:

1. In case you are a small business owner and you have to make CASH payments of more than Rs. 2,000 to your vendors / suppliers during tomorrow and day after – you are royally screwed!
2. Let’s say you run a restaurant and you need to procure inventory for your kitchen which you normally do from the local wholesale subzi mandi – you go to the vegetable vendors and suggest them to do cashless transactions – the looks and stare that you would get from them would be truly legendary.
3. You are a below / just above poverty line laborer / daily worker, you are illiterate, you do not have a bank account or a smartphone, you earn 4,000 – 5,000 rupees per month. Your employer has paid your monthly salary in 500 rupee notes – you have no idea how badly screwed you are!
4. You are travelling from let’s say Guwahati to Kozhikode in a train (it takes around 60 hours to complete the journey). You have boarded the train today with all OHD notes. By the time you reach Kozhikode the currency you have with you has ZERO worth, the ATMs are not allowing you to withdraw cash (because ATMs will not work till 11 November), you don’t even have the money to go to the nearest bank or post-office – Yes, you guessed it right. You are screwed yet again! (Before all of you start shouting Uber / Ola – FYI, they do not have services in Kozhikode) – Cashless transaction my foot.
5. You sell fish let’s say at Lokhandwala or HAL or Chittaranjan Park, you have no idea what is going on around you. Some Bong babumoshai has given you a lengthy lecture about what is to going to happen, which you have conveniently ignored (because, come on, that dude lectures you every day – he’s a Bong, that’s his passion). You do have a bank account, but it is in fucking Kottayam, and you have accumulated cash worth Rs. 2 lakhs in the last one week which you need to spend to buy your next lot of inventory. Wait! You can’t do that. You have to leave your means of livelihood, get the money deposited to your bank and then travel to Kottayam to withdraw that money!

These, are just five random situations that normal people like me can find themselves stuck in because of the OHD notes withdrawal scheme.

More than 80% of India’s black money is parked in overseas accounts in any case. Yes, this will cause a serious depreciation in the remaining 20%, true that. But at what cost?

Bold move, accepted. Something like this will be a great boon for our economy, accepted. But what is the need to create an emergency like situation? Is there really a need for this marketing gimmick, such sensationalism?