NEW DELHI: Continuing his criticism of the demonetisation of notes, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday dubbed the Centre’s move as a “huge scam” and alleged that the ruling BJP had told all its “friends” about the decision much before the Prime Minister announced it to the nation.
“In the days leading to the announcement of the demonetisation decision by the Prime Minister, thousands of crores of rupees were deposited in bank accounts of some people and corporate houses,” Kejriwal said, alleging the Modi government had benefited “their own people and was creating problems for the aam aadmi”. He alleged that Sanjeev Kamboj, who heads the BJP’s Punjab legal cell, was seen with new Rs 2,000 notes on social media days before Modi announced the scrapping of the Rs 500 and Rs 1,00 notes.
“What according to the Prime Minister is the definition of black money? Have India’s top industrialists — Ambani, Adani, Sharad Pawar, Subhash Chandra — and Badal amassed black money or the common man like farmers, rickshaw-pullers, shopkeepers and labourers?” he said. Further he demanded that the BJP should disclose the list of all its “friends” whom it had tipped off about the demonetisation plan.
The AAP supremo said that the Centre’s decision to denotify Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes was like a “surgical strike” on common man’s “small savings” and not on black marketeers. “The government must roll back the decision immediately. This will lead to a massive financial crisis by causing a loss of jobs,” he added.
He claimed that demonetisation wouldn’t suck out black money from the economy and cited a report saying there was a high jump in bank deposits in the July-September quarter and added that deposits were “very low” before that period.