ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts a preliminary assessment of the drastic demonetisation experiment unleashed by the government of Narendra Modi on 8 November 2016. Under the garb of attacking 'black money', demonetisation was a way of stealing a march, financially, over the opposition parties in the forthcoming state Assembly elections. A major source of corruption in India is the current political system, with the opaque funding of political parties and a system of electoral spending that allows vast amounts to be spent unmonitored and prevents those without deep pockets from even participating effectively as candidates. In the case of the demonetisation exercise, its pursuit and defence has been given a 'nationalist' hue by identifying the 'other' as the corrupt and the criminal elements who are stealing from India's poor. The possibility of making investments in securities through tradable 'Participatory Notes' in the stock market, which allows the holder to conceal his/her identity, is an obvious means of parking illicit funds.
