The point to kept secret in the power corridors of the national capital, it was a tightly policed affair with only a few handful of top officials prior to the move. Apart from ministers at the Cabinet meeting who had to remain in quarantine for a while, members of the Reserve Bank of India(RBI) board too left only after Modi's speech. Some said the official agenda for the Cabinet meeting on Tuesday was a deceptive string of MoUs between India and Japan, and even ministers were not aware about the proposal to ban high value currency notes. "We just got some indication 10 minutes before the meeting started. It was a bold step by government. All ministers remained in the meeting hall from 6.45pm to 9pm until the PM's address to the nation ended," a minister said.