BJP, Opposition lock horns over demonetisation

New Delhi: The ruling BJP and the Congress-led Opposition locked horns on Wednesday over the contentious move by the government to demonetise high-value currency notes a year ago. While the Congress observed November 8 as a “black day”, the BJP marked it as “anti-black money day”, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi thanking the people for supporting the note ban.

In a decision that has been much debated ever since, the Prime Minister had announced the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes exactly a year back in a bid to curb black money and boost the digital economy.

BJP ministers, chief ministers and members of Parliament took to Twitter to celebrate “anti-black money day”. Mr Modi said he “bows” to the people of India for supporting measures taken by the government against corruption and black money. Demonetisation was a decisive battle where 125 crore Indians fought against black money and won, he said.

In a series of tweets, the PM posted short films on his Twitter handle to showcase demonetisation’s benefits. He said the move formalised the Indian economy and ensured better jobs for the poor, while cleansing the financial system.

The Congress, on the other hand, said demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes had led to large-scale job losses, specially in the informal sector. In a hard-hitting article in London’s prestigious Financial Times, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi wrote: “Mr Modi has damaged India by converting anger created by joblessness and lack of economic opportunity into communal hatred. He has chosen to hide behind a shallow, hate-filled political narrative. Anger might have brought Mr Modi to power, but it will never create jobs or fix India’s institutions.”

He said: “The Prime Minister claimed his decision was aimed at wiping out corruption. Twelve months on, the only thing he has wiped out is confidence in our once booming economy.”

Mr Gandhi, now camping in Surat, Gujarat, described demonetisation as an “attack on the Indian economy”.

Former finance minister P. Chidambaram said that in the interests of transparency, the government/RBI should release the RBI board’s agenda, background note and (former governor) Raghuram Rajan’s note. “If the government is confident of its decision, why does it fear releasing these documents?”

The BJP was quick to target Mr Gandhi, saying the ex-serviceman whose photograph he has tweeted to pan demonetisation has publicly supported the note ban, and claimed that he is turning the Indian National Congress into the “Indian Fake News Congress”.

The government fielded I&B minister Smriti Irani to hit back, who said the note ban decision was “definitely a tragedy for the Gandhi family”.

At a press conference in Lucknow, she took a dig at the Congress vice-president, saying it was definitely a tragedy for the gentleman who had wanted to withdraw `4,000 just for show, and then took long breaks in overseas destinations unknown to many Indians.

The Opposition, led by the Congress, has made the issue of demonetisation, coupled with “hasty” implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), a poll plank in the coming Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat elections.

Most Opposition parties held protests across the country on separate platforms in protest against the note ban. Lashing out at the Modi government, the Left parties said for the first time in India’s history, a government was “celebrating” death and suffering.

“The Modi government has created two records in the world. One, it made people stand in queues and many people lost their lives; second, though Modi tried to tell the people and the world that by demonetisation he would stop black money, in reality he has helped hoarders change black money into white,” CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat said at a rally on the first anniversary of demonetisation.

Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, in a Twitter post, asked people to turn their profile pictures black in protest against demonetisation.