HP Assembly polls: How demonetisation has dampened the spirits of voters

Due to demonetisation voters of Himachal Pradesh are not very enthusiastic to vote in the upcoming Assembly polls on Thursday.

Shimla, Nov 7: In less than 48 hours Himachal Pradesh will go to polls on Thursday (November 9) to elect 68-member state legislative assembly.

While national leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, visited the Himalayan state as a part of their election campaign, the residents, especially those from the rural areas, are not very enthusiastic about voting.

They say they have lost faith in politicians, irrespective of whether they belong to the ruling Congress or the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the main opposition in the state. The reason, economic policies like demonetisation that added woes to the rural community by throwing many out of their jobs.

In fact, a farmer couple from Banbagh village near Theog, about 40km from Shimla, the state's capital city, decided to boycott the upcoming elections by not voting this time. The couple is so miffed with Modi's demonetisation that they have lost faith in all politicians.

"My wife Vidya Devi and I will stay indoors on polling day, November 9," the 50-year-old Bishan Singh Verma was quoted as saying by The Telegraph. "I'm angry. All the political parties are the same. I shall not vote."

Because of demonetisation, Verma left farming and is currently running a small dhaba to maintain his household which includes his two children.

The former farmer was engaged in growing vegetables in his 5-bigha land. However, this summer he could not sow seeds as the arthia (market middleman) refused to give him an advance of Rs 50,000.

"Every year the arthia gives us an advance to help us buy seeds and fertilisers, sometimes farm equipment too. This time he had no money; the cash pool had dried. From whatever little I had, I planted some cabbage and beans. But since the buyers had little money, prices fell to a third," Verma told The Telegraph.

"For a 50kg sack of cabbage, I was offered Rs 200 in a Delhi market. Poor farmers like us have been left nowhere."

Thus note ban forced the likes of Verma to give up farming. Just three months ago, he and his son Barinder opened an eatery along the Shimla-Rampur highway. Now, Verma hopes he will get enough costumers (mostly tourists) for his dhaba to earn some money to run his home.

The problem of people like Verma becomes more visible as the nation is going to observe the first anniversary of demonetisation announced by the Modi government on November 8 last year.

Due to demonetisation, high-value currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 were scrapped leading to severe cash crunch and loss of jobs. According reports, thousands of people, especially farmers, daily wagers and small traders, have lost their source of income due to demonetisation.

While the Modi government is going to celebrate the first anniversary of note ban as the "anti-black money day", the Opposition will mourn the day as "black day" on Wednesday. The BJP announced demonetisation to fight against black money, corruption and terror funding.

OneIndia News