Prime Minister Narendra Modi jolted the nation on Tuesday night with a dramatic announcement: currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 will be demonetised from November 9 onwards, in a bid to crack down on illegal hoarding of black money. Instead, the government will introduce new design for the Rs 500 note and add a Rs 2,000 note.
Chaos is inevitably going to ensue at the country's banks and post offices where people will have to line up to exchange their notes. As a form of solace for this inconvenience, Modi also reminded the nation that honest citizens would gladly shoulder these hardships for the sake of the country.
This reminder was perhaps not necessary for large numbers of citizens on social media, who erupted with praise and cheer at the breaking financial news. Keeping with the flavour of the season, the overwhelming consensus on Twitter seemed to be that this is Modi's "surgical strike" against corruption:
Others couldn't help pointing out the humour in the situation:
Amidst all the cheer on Twitter, however, there were several sceptical voices too:
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