Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement on demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 caused ripples across India as people thronged ATMs, petrol pumps and grocery shops in their desperation to use as much of their unused cash as possible.
Modi, in his announcement, said that Rs 500 and Rs 1000 will become illegal from the midnight of 9 November and they will be replaced by new Rs 500 and Rs 2000 notes.
While the BJP’s political detractors such as Mamata Banerjee, CPI-M and Congress slammed Modi for his ‘draconian’ decision, his supporters in the party and media were nimble-footed in singing praises for him.
Awe struck by Modi’s supposed ‘masterstroke,’ Zee News owned by BJP Rajya Sabha MP, Subhash Chandra, went a step ahead to announce how the new Rs 2000 note will have a secret chip, which will help the central government agencies to trace the note even when it was buried under 120 meters.
The theory crafted by Zee News sounded more adventurous than even the makers of James Bond series could ever have come up with. (See below)
Zee News’ Rs 2000 embedded chip theory was widely shared on WhatsApp prompting even some of Modi’s critics to believe it as a real story. But, there was one problem.
The story propogated by Zee News was fake as firmly denied by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and an RBI official.
This was enough to cause huge social media reactions as users on microblogging site posted funny comments.
Here are some of them:
I heard the new Rs.2000 notes have an inbuilt mechanism whereby if you do something bad, they give you a mild shock.
— Karthik (@beastoftraal) November 9, 2016
Apart from Nano GPS Chip, the Rs 2000 Notes will also have Jio Sim with 4G connection. It will call RBI and inform where it is stocked
— Joy (@Joydas) November 8, 2016
https://twitter.com/ProfOliver_/status/796232590751506432
New 2000 Rs note having!!!
1.GPS tracker
2.64GB memoryCard
3.Spy Camera (VGA)
4.Processor Chips ??
Whatsapp Forward Gumbals Attrocity?— Trᴏll Sυρєrѕtαrѕ™ (@TrollSuperstars) November 9, 2016
I heard the new Rs.2000 notes have an inbuilt mechanism whereby if you do something bad, they give you a mild shock.
— Karthik (@beastoftraal) November 9, 2016
The new Rs2000 Currency Note to be introduced by Modi ji.
P.S: सच्चे हिंदू और देशभक्त हो तो इसको आग की तरह फैला दो! pic.twitter.com/vqqLSvWNvc
— Kapil (@kapsology) November 9, 2016
. @sudhirchaudhary ji is the best journalist in India. Sikular, Pro-pak brigade will not show you this. Hahahahaha pic.twitter.com/qEc8mO4Fwz
— Shahnawaz شاہ نواز (@shahnawazk) November 11, 2016
