Demonetisation disastrous, worst yet to come: Congress

The Congress on Wednesday asserted that the Indian economy had been “disrupted, derailed” and sent into “a shutdown mode” due to demonetisation, with former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and former Finance Minister P Chidambaram blaming the Centre’s policy for a decline in India’s GDP.

Speaking at the Jan Vedna Sammelan, a gathering to critique the ruling BJP’s “anti-people” policies, Singh termed demonetisation a “disaster” and predicted that the “worst is yet to come” in the wake of this policy move.

Singh, who is also a noted economist, termed “hollow” Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s claims of a robust economy. “The demonetisation move was disastrous. It hurt the economy but the worst is yet to come,” said Singh. Singh, who had earlier said that demonetisation would knock two percentage points off India’s GDP, reiterated his assertion on Wednesday. He said almost all international rating agencies had pared down growth estimates from 7.6% to 7% and as low as 6.3%. “As a consequence, employment will fall in agriculture which contributes 45% to the national income,” he said.

Chidambaram, who has been highlighting the fact that the decision to demonetise was taken without proper consultation in the RBI Board, pointed out that, in fact, even the Cabinet was ignored. Pointing out that there is no record of a Cabinet meeting of November 8, Chidambaram asked: “Where is the Cabinet note? Where is the Cabinet decision?”

“Never before in India’s history has such a farce been enacted… The reputation of the RBI is at risk today,” said the former Finance Minister while pointing out that even a one per cent decline in GDP will mean a loss of ₹1.5 lakh crore to the country.

‘PM remains in denial’ The Congress’s statement at the convention millions of workers in farming and construction and in other sectors had lost their jobs.

“The Prime Minister remains unmoved and in denial even when tens of millions of people have been forced to stand in queue before banks and ATMs for nearly 60 days. The promised amount of currency notes has not been made available,” the statement said.

The statement demanded that the Prime Minister reveal what percentage of demonetised currency notes was blackmoney as practically all the demonetised notes have been deposited in banks. “This exposes the hollowness of the government’s claims. The PM is masquerading as a crusader against blackmoney and corruption after having singularly failed in fulfilling his promises of retrieving the unaccounted wealth and money stashed abroad,” it said.

The party said India’s image has been tarnished by projection that the Indian economy was primarily based on black money.

“It is also a matter of concern that during the 50-day period of ‘ notebandi ’, an unholy nexus of certain corrupt BJP leaders, black-marketeers and bank officials were shown to be operating by various media channels, indulging in illegal conversions of stockpiles of currency,” the party said.

It said for the corrupt blackmoney holders, the back door of banks operated, while the common man waited for his turn in lines at front doors.

The Congress also demanded an impartial and independent inquiry into charges of personal corruption against Modi when he was the Gujarat Chief Minister. “Why has the Modi government not conducted an investigation into this serious charge of corruption for 31 months despite availability of evidence? Why is PM Modi not coming forward to conduct an independent probe in the matter if he has nothing to hide?” the statement said.

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