“Notebandi is nothing less than a country’s ‘biggest scam’ : Rahul Gandhi
NEW DELHI : Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Thursday launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the issue of demonetisation, saying it was the “biggest scam” under which money taken from the common people was given to the ‘defaulting’ crony capitalists.
“The Prime Minister had promised that black money, terror funding, and fake currency will be eradicated by demonetisation. But the RBI annual report proves that all its objectives have failed,” Gandhi said while referring to the RBI’s report on the outcome of the note ban exercise.
“Why did he (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) do it (demonetization)? His 15-20 big industrialist friends had accumulated NPAs worth thousands of crore. So through demonetisation your (common man’s) money was taken out of your pocket and put directly in the pockets of the country’s biggest crony capitalists,” Gandhi told the media.
“It is manifested in the case of a Gujarat Cooperative Bank, of which BJP President Amit Shah is a Director, where Rs 700 crore worth of money was deposited,” he alleged.”Prime Minister Modi should answer why he inflicted a deep wound like demonetisation when issues like unemployment and low GDP rate remained,” the Congress chief said while referring to the RBI’s report on the outcome of the demonetisation exercise.
According to the report, over 99 per cent of the banned currency is back in banks. Taking a swipe at Modi, the Congress leader said he rightly claims that what he achieved was not done in 70 years. Demonetisation is proof of that as it was aimed at helping only the rich, he added.
Demonetisation destroyed the economy and led to unemployment, the Rahul Gandhi said, adding that he should provide youngsters in the country with some answers. He also asserted that he is not afraid of defamation suits filed against him.
Asked whether like his party, he believed PM Modi should apologise to the nation, Mr Gandhi said: “You apologies for a mistake, but PM Modi did this deliberately. Demonetisation was made to finish you”
Mr Gandhi said the Prime Minister did an “irreversible damage” to the economy with the notes ban and he is answerable to the common man. He said PM Modi’s “friends” turned black money into white after the note ban.”For example, a cooperative bank in Gujarat whose Director is (BJP President) Amit Shah, exchanged Rs. 700 crore in the wake of demonetization. It cannot even be called a jumla, it can be called a scam,” he added.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, defending demonetization in his blog, said it led to formalisation of economy, more tax collection and higher growth. Mr Jaitley asserted that the “larger purpose” of demonetisation was to move India from a tax non-compliant society to a tax-compliant society.(With Agency Inputs ).