A story of demonetization and the triumph of Narendra Modi.
On the 8th of November, the Indian Prime Minister declared on national television that 86% of India’s currency notes will be stop being legal tender after 12 AM that same day. It was said to be a move which would remove black money, fake notes and terror funding from the country. In the first few days a rumor was circulated by both mainstream and social media that the notes had a new GPS chip which could track money through satellites.
However, it turned out that the new notes were scarce, banks were not prepared, ATMs were unable to dispense the new currency and there were scarcely any cutting-edge security features in them, let alone a GPS chip.
Over the next four months, all the people in India were waiting in bank lines — both for their own money and the elections of 2017. The supreme court termed the move as ‘carpet bombing’ on the people. The opposition termed it as a scam and an artificial emergency. Satires were made and twitter trends became popular mocking the shoddy step taken by the government. Fake notes with 50% of the features were found within weeks after the new notes were introduced. Various printing errors were found and the 500 rupee note actually had two legal versions in circulation. After two months, newly refurbished ATMs were dispensing board game replicas of the new currency. (literally!)
In March, the voting of 5 state assemblies got over, and the ruling party bagged 4 out of those 5 governments.
This research project is an effort to mark out how the Modi government managed the perceptions of the people and justified such a move to the Indian population.
The aim of this research is to:
- Uncover the discursive strategies used by political parties and political agents in the Indian context.
- Uncover the systems and media apparatus used in this context.
There are 5 broad research questions:
- What are the strategies used by BJP, Sangh Parivar and the opposition parties in the demonetization debate.
- How is demonetization being constructed in these discourses. What are its effects?
- What is the system and apparatus in which these discourses are made and disseminated? Who are the non-party functionaries and how do they function especially in an online realm?
- What are the stable patterns of action and reaction in this whole discursive field which transcends this specific issue? How has it evolved and how is it evolving?
- Where can a citizen intervene and change this system?
I will be using Critical Discourse Analysis method for this research, as formulated by Fairclough.
