Congress Pens Obituary Note for Rs. 2,000 Banknote, Says It's After Effect of Demonetization
The Congress party stepped up its criticism of the Reserve Bank of India”s (RBI) decision to withdraw Rs. 2,000 banknotes from circulation on Saturday, as the process ended.
In a tweet, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh slammed the decision as the after effect of 2016 demonetization, which he called a “monumental disaster” and a “Tughlakian decision.”
“As the nation marks the obituary of the 2000 rupee note, let it be a reminder of the monumental disaster that was the Tughlakian decision of November 8, 2016,” Ramesh said.
He also accused Modi followers for mocking the critics, including Rahul Gandhi, and referred to them as “drum-beaters.” He also mentioned that some people claimed that microchip-enabled notes could help track black money. Ramesh criticized the Modi government for spending thousands of crores of taxpayers” money in a futile exercise and destroying lakhs of micro and small businesses across the country.
He also tagged Rahul Gandhi”s post on demonetization from 2016 in which he had questioned the effectiveness of replacing Rs. 1,000 notes with Rs. 2,000 notes in curbing black money hoarding.
The RBI has extended the special drive to withdraw Rs. 2,000 bank notes from the system by another week, till October 7. The central bank has received Rs. 3.42 lakh crore of such notes into the system either by deposition into bank accounts or exchanging from the public since it announced the move to withdraw Rs. 2,000 notes on May 19. The currency returned is 96% of the Rs. 2,000 bank notes in circulation as on May 19, and only Rs. 14,000 crore of such notes are in circulation now.
Earlier, the deadline to deposit/exchange Rs. 2,000 notes was September 30, 2023. In a surprise move, it had announced withdrawal of Rs. 2,000 notes in May but maintained that it was not akin to the demonetization carried out in November 2016 when Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes were made illegal tender overnight.
The RBI has said that the Rs. 2,000 notes shall continue to be legal tender even beyond October 7 but asked the public to deposit or exchange the notes without any further delay. From October 8, the deposit/exchange facilities at bank branches will be stopped, and people will have to get them exchanged at 19 offices of RBI.
