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  India   Politics  27 Dec 2016  Cash crisis to hurt poor even after December 30: Rahul Gandhi

Cash crisis to hurt poor even after December 30: Rahul Gandhi

THE ASIAN AGE. | SANJAY BOHRA
Published : Dec 27, 2016, 2:44 am IST
Updated : Dec 27, 2016, 3:39 am IST

Rahul Gandhi said that demonetisation plan was hatched to help 50 top business families.

Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi at Public Meeting in Baran, Rajasthan. (Photo: PTI)
 Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi at Public Meeting in Baran, Rajasthan. (Photo: PTI)

Baran (Rajasthan): Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi has one again accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of sacrificing poor people in his so called war against corruption and black money. Addressing a public rally in Rajasthan’s Baran on Monday, he said that instead of targeting the rich, who hides their black money in real estate, gold and off shore accounts, the PM has attacked the majority that is honest, comprising poor and middle class who keep their money in cash.

“Why Modiji has targeted 99 per cent of the population, which keeps money in cash. I want to tell him that the cash these people keep is not black but white. It is their hard earned money, which he has taken to give to his rich friends,” he alleged.

“Demonetisation has been extremely harsh on ordinary people like farmers, labourers, shopkeepers, housewives and the youth. Not only they were made cashless but also rendered them unemployed as the demonetisation, he said, resulted in economic lockdownt as industries were forced to closed down because farmers, labourers, small traders and industries deal in cash,” he added.

While sticking to the old theme of “Garibon se kheencho, ameeron ko seencho (Take from the poor to pay the rich), however, Mr Gandhi brought a new dimension to his allegations, saying that the government won’t lift restriction on bank withdrawals because it wants your money to stay in banks as long as possible to help them restructure debts of big companies owned by the PM’s friends who accompanies him on his foreign tours.

“I can tell you that you will not be able to withdraw your own money as much as you wished because the government won’t remove restrictions on it because than you will withdraw all your money leaving nothing for the banks to lend the PM’s friends rich friends,” he said.

According to the Congress vice-president, the PM described demonetisation as national yajna that requires sacrifice, however, he alleged that only the poor was made to sacrifice while the rich are sitting comfortably as they adjusted their black money before the demonetisation was launched since they were privy to this decision. To lend strength to his allegation, he cited unusual surge in bank deposits to the tune of `6 lakh crore a month before the demonetisation was announced suggesting that it was done by the PM’s “super rich” friends. Apart from that he also mentioned land purchased and money in crores deposited by some state units of the BJP.

The Congress, he said, would support any decision of the NDA government against corruption and black money. but it opposed demonetization because it has ulterior motives. Referring to Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s defence of demonetization that it was a good policy but planning was poor. “I want to tell Rajnath Singh ji that he should not leave under any illusion about the PM. I have been told by Shankar Singh Vaghela who was once close to him that Modi ji is a superb planner,” he said suggesting that real motive behind demonetization were different than what is being propagated.

“The demonetization plan was hatched to help 50 top business families. They can’t borrow more because they already owe Rs 8 lakh crore to the public sector banks. And, because of this the banks do not have money to lend them. So, he devised this plan to keep your money in banks for six-seven months to help the banks restructure debts of these rich people who finance his publicity campaign,” he alleged. He also took a jibe at the PM by tweaking line of a famous Bollywood song saying, “Ram Ram japna, garib ka mall apna.”

If he (PM) was serious about removing black money, he would have disclosed names of 648 persons given to his government by swiss government who have black money stashed in swiss bank accounts.

Reiterating his allegation of personal corruption against the PM, the Congress vice president waived documents claiming that these were official documents of the IT department that proved that the PM received money from Sahara and Birla group paid money.

Tags: rahul gandhi, narendra modi, demonetisation, rajnath singh
Location: India, Rajasthan