THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Demonetisation was a monumental blunder committed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which no economic expert would ever endorse, according to former Union Minister and Congress leader Jairam Ramesh.
“Seventy four days have passed since demonetisation was announced. None of the claims and assurances made by Modi has come true.Even after realising that demonetisation is a resounding failure, Modi stands by ‘asatyameva jayathe’ and comes up with lies after lies,” the technocrat-turned-politico said in Thiruvananthapuram Saturday.
Inaugurating the ‘Janavedana meet’ organised at the KPCC headquarters Indira Bhavan as part of the all India campaign launched by the AICC, Jairam Ramesh wondered how a political decision on demonetisation that had such magnitude could be taken by the ruler of a country which had counterfeit money with face value of only Rs 500 crore in circulation. “There will be not be a single country in the world which has imposed curbs on citizens withdrawing their own money,” he said, adding, if 70 per cent of the black money in circulation was expected to reach the banks, plenty more had been returned”.
According to the Congress leader, ”the rights of the people are being usurped in the name of demonetisation”.
“Narendra Modi deserves to be called Narendra Tuglak, for the foolish act of demonetisation. It is common knowledge that those, who have black money, will not keep it as hard currency. Rather,they will invest in real estate,company shares and stash it in foreign accounts,” Jairam Ramesh said.
He recalled that during the final two years of the erstwhile UPA II Government, black money worth Rs 1.3 lakh crore had been unearthed.I n the two-and-a-half years of the BJP-NDA Government’s tenure, only Rs 1.2 lakh crore was netted, he said, asserting that demonetisation had virtually crushed agriculture, small scale industries and unorganised sectors,leaving the entire rural economy in a shambles.
“When RBI Governor Urjit Patel was grilled by the Parliamentary Accounts Committee on demonetisation,he had no reply. Former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh,who was a former RBI chief,had to save him,” Jairam Ramesh said.
He also took a dig at Modi’s plank that terrorism and incidents of stone pelting in Jammu and Kashmir had come down post-demonetisation.
“Will anyone go for pelting stones in the biting cold? Modi is spreading lies,while trying to show that he is the father of Harishchandra. After replacing Gandhiji’s picture with that of himself in the Khadi Board calendar,the move is to print his images on currency notes also,” he said.