On the third anniversary of demonetisation, the Opposition came down heavily on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP for not owning up the responsibility for the damages inflicted on the economy by such a 'Tughlaki blunder'. Linking the increase in unemployment and job loss with the demonetisation, the Opposition parties said the "tyrannical government" has not learned any lessons and is still hell bent upon attacking the livelihoods and lives of its own people.

'Failed spectacularly'

Congress President Sonia Gandhi said that the Centre had claimed that the decision will wipe out black money, eliminate fake currency and purge terrorism and naxalism. She said the Centre even told the Supreme Court that ₹ 3,00,000 crore of black money will be purged as it would not return into the system. "Subsequently, PM added the objective of abolition of cash currency usage and to replace it with a digital economy. Three years later, Prime Minister Modi has failed spectacularly on all these counts," she said in a statement here on Friday.

The RBI has confirmed that 99.3 per cent of all the devalued ₹500 and ₹1,000 currency notes have been re-deposited with zero windfall gain to speak of, her statement said. "Fake notes turned out to be a miniscule, and a negligible percentage of the notes in circulation (again, as per the RBI). Terror and naxalite activities have actually seen an increase after demonetisation as per the Government’s own published data. The currency in circulation has actually seen a 22 per cent increase over pre-demonetisation level (as per FM in the Parliament)," the Raebareli MP said.

'Take responsibility'

Sonia Gabdhi said that the demonetisation has wiped out over 1 crore jobs from the economy and took the unemployment rate to a 45-year high, shaved 2 percentage points off the GDP growth, and ensured that India’s international rating moved from ‘stable’ to ‘negative’. "It is now widely acknowledged as a herculean blunder by independent economists and taught, across the world, as a cautionary tale of ‘what governments should not do’," she claimed.

"Three years on, demonetisation is perhaps the single most appropriate metaphor for the BJP’s ill-conceived ‘governance model’. It was a preposterous measure fuelled by false propaganda, which did untold damage to innocent and trusting countrymen. This, in a nutshell, is a summary of the Modi Government’s approach to governance," the statement added.

Crime Against people

CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram yechury said the country is yet recover from the shock given by the Centre. “Today is the third anniversary of a crime against the Indian people. In its hubris, this Government did demonetisation which unleashed nothing but a crisis and pain. We are yet to fully recover from this shock,” he said.

Congress spokesperson Ajay Maken said unemployment reached most frightening level in 45-years after demonetisation. “The people of the country were betrayed and no goal of demonetisation was achieved,” the former minister said citing statistics of GDP growth, terror attacks and job losses in the last three years.

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