PM’s attitude pushed nation 10 years back: Kejriwal

New Delhi: Alleging that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s arrogant and stubborn attitude has pushed the country 10 years back, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday launched a tirade against the Centre’s demonetisation move, terming it as a “flop”.

Kejriwal alleged that contrary to the Union government’s promises, the move has “failed” to curb black money, corruption, circulation of counterfeit currency, and terror funding. The CM alleged that the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and lieutenant-governor Najeeb Jung plan to arrest his deputy, Manish Sisodia, just before the Punjab polls.

“There is a conspiracy to use the Shunglu committee to frame and arrest Mr Sisodia. Our sources say that he will be arrested just before the Punjab election,” Mr Kejriwal said. He said that the Central government had already got 15 AAP MLAs arrested on “baseless charges”.

“The whole nation knows that ours is an honest government. We welcome them to arrest Mr Sisodia, who will be our sixteenth MLA to get arrested on baseless charges. But we also challenge the Central government to show courage and arrest Shunglu as well, who is himself facing criminal charges,” Mr Kejriwal said.

Earlier, referring to the Shunglu committee set up to probe Delhi government decisions, Mr Kejriwal pointed out that Mr Shunglu was facing charges of malpractices in Delhi Public School (DPS) residential society. “Complaints of malpractices by Shunglu in DPS are lying pending with the L-G for more than 18 months,” Mr Kejriwal tweeted, adding, “Will PMO save Shunglu in return (for framing Sisodia)?”

Mr Jung had set up a three-member panel to study the alleged irregularities by the Delhi government following an August 4 Delhi high court ruling, giving primacy to the L-G in Delhi’s administration. The panel submitted its report on Sunday.

Mr Kejriwal claimed that black money and corruption has “increased” tenfold ever since the ban of high-value currency and demanded that cases of ch-eating and fraud be lodged against those responsible in the Centre for the mess.

The CM also alleged that the BJP has settled its “black money” before the demonetisation move by buying land in Bihar and other states. “Today, it has been 20 days since the introduction of demonetisation of high currency notes. It has completely failed to curb black money, terror funding, fake notes, and corruption. Demone-tisation has flopped,” he said.

Mr Kejriwal alleged that counterfeit notes are being churned out even faster than what the RBI is doing, which gives rise to suspicion as to whether it is a way to convert black money into white. “Since demonetisation was announced, Rs 8 lakh crore has been deposited by the people in their bank accounts and according to our information, out of them, no black money has been deposited so far... The PM’s arrogance and obstinacy has pushed the country 10 years back.”

The chief minister said that the Centre has also brought drastic cuts in fixed deposit interest rate which will pile misery on the elderly.

“In comparison to October, corruption level and generation of black money has increased 10 times. US dollar is legally available for Rs 70, but in black market, it is being bought at Rs 116 per USD. Gold is also being bought for Rs 30,000 per 10 gm, but through wrong channels, it is being bought for Rs 56,000,” he alleged.

The chief minister said that the Centre has also brought drastic cuts in fixed deposit interest rate which will pile misery on the elderly. “The Prime Minister is probably avoiding the Parliament as he is scared of facing certain allegations against him,” he said.