EARLY in November India’s government took a momentous decision by abruptly voiding 86% of the cash in circulation. The effects have been painful: businesses cannot pay workers or suppliers; day-long queues stretch outside banks as citizens jostle for new notes that cannot be printed fast enough to meet demand. The government said the trouble would be over by year’s end. It is clear now that the hurt will last far longer. Few in India can talk about anything else—yet India’s parliament has barely managed to discuss it at all.
In any other parliamentary democracy, such a glaring bungle would have prompted a strong legislative response. To cause a sharp slowdown in a perfectly healthy economy would invite fierce questions and perhaps a vote of no confidence. Governments have fallen for lesser goofs.
But in the world’s biggest democracy, things are different. True, India’s bicameral parliament did convene in mid-November for its month-long winter session, and opposition MPs loudly attacked “demonetisation”. Yet nothing like a formal parliamentary debate has taken place. Narendra Modi, the prime minister, has neither explained his...Continue reading
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