There was no end to chaos for a second straight day across the country as millions thronged banks and ATMs to deposit the spiked currency and withdraw cash, only to face an unprecedented cash shortage.
With tempers flaring at banks and on the streets, two staffers of a private bank branch here were assaulted by angry customers after they were told there was no cash to disburse, witnesses said.
All over the country, residents and correspondents reported serpentine queues outside banks even before they opened for the day. While the scenes were orderly in many places, desperation led to chaos in most others.
Most people complained that they were running out of cash to buy even essentials as they had not done any banking since Tuesday midnight – when the Rs500 and Rs1,000 notes ceased to be legal tender.
“The rush was more than Thursday,” a guard at a State Bank of India branch in Noida, adjoining Delhi, said. It was the same story almost everywhere.
Government ministers again justified Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision to spike the Rs500 and Rs1,000 currency in a bid to check black money and corruption.
BJP president Amit Shah denounced the opposition. “I can’t understand the problems of these political parties. Why do they oppose demonetisation?”
On the streets, some frustrated people provided the answer.
“We don’t know whether this measure will check black money or not but we have been put into massive inconvenience,” complained Manoj Kumar, a Noida shopkeeper, echoing a widely held view.
The widespread complaint was that despite queuing up to surrender or exchange the spiked currency and withdraw cash from their own accounts for hours, many could not even enter the overcrowded banks.
In most cases, the crowds were so thick that they spilled over to the roads, causing traffic problems. Police had a tough time managing traffic and agitated bank customers.
In New Delhi, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi surprised everyone by joining a zig-zagging queue outside the State Bank of India on Parliament Street saying he wanted to get Rs 4,000 exchanged for new currency.
“I want to stand in the queue... People are suffering,” he said.
Criticism of the government move was rampant, more because of its suddenness and the resultant hardships it had caused to households as well as businesses.
“There is an anarchy like situation in India,” Congress leader Anand Sharma said. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) urged its activists to help out illiterate people in the queues.
In the first clear sign that the demonetisation was having a political fallout, it emerged that the Prime Minister seemed to have lost over 300,000 followers on Twitter.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said there was enough cash with banks across the country to exchange the demonetised Rs500 and Rs1,000 notes though it may “take a while for the banks to recalibrate their ATMs”.
In Lucknow, people stuck in serpentine queues outside banks and ATM kiosks got rowdy in some places. At others they openly aired their frustration.
Overworked bank staff complained that they were doing their best but people were insisting on taking out more than the permissible Rs4,000 per day, claiming family emergencies.
The anger mounted when banks ran out of cash even before their stipulated closure time.
As for ATMs, tens of thousands did not function in state after state, mainly because they were not configured for the new Rs2,000 and Rs500 notes.
A dentist in Kerala said she was accepting cheques from known customers.
Engineering student Ranjan Samal despaired in Bhubaneswar that he had run out of money. SBI customer Sudhakar Rao complained in Hyderabad that he was in the queue for two hours and tired. Chennai resident Syed Ishtiaq Ahmed, a senior citizen, said he had no money to buy milk and vegetables.