Modi and the art of distraction

Cash held by the public now is back above pre-demonetisation levels

The great Jadugar K Lal once told me that stage magic just involved using imagination, followed by careful scripting and practice. He said the really difficult thing was learning the art of distraction. Misdirecting audience’s attention was, he said, a skill that far transcended the performance of smooth sleights of hand and the crafting of clever mechanical illusions.

It is a skill that the current political establishment has learnt well. Whenever it’s under pressure, it creates some sort of distraction to drag attention away from the embarrassment of the moment. The dawn raids by Pune police on activists across the