Congress Leader Jairam Attacks PM Modi; Cites RBI Report For “Utterly Wasteful” ‘Demonetisation’
Sharing an article published by The Hindu, the Indian National Congress (INC) MP and general secretary in charge of communication Jairam Ramesh attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP-led central government, saying that demonetisation, which was implemented by the government and hailed as historic, transformative, game changer decision, has not achieved any of the stated objectives, especially the “destroying of black money and the clamping down of terror funding”, noting that 99.3% of the demonetized notes came back into system.
In an indirect reference toPrime Minister Modi, Jairam said that it was all just “to feed the megalomaniacal ego of one man!”. “What an utterly wasteful, unproductive exercise this whole drama turned into — all just to feed the megalomaniacal ego of one man!” he penned.
In his post on X (formerly Twitter), Jairam also reminded the people of the fanfare with which Prime Minister Narendra Modi demonetised 500 and 1000 rupee notes overnight and introduced 2000 rupee notes instead, stating its objectives as curbing black money and the terror funding.
Remember the fanfare with which the Prime Minister first demonetised 500 and 1000 rupee notes overnight, along with the introduction of the 2000 rupee note?
It was hailed as “historic”, “transformative’, ‘a game changer”, ‘masterstroke’ and so on. The…
— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) January 2, 2024
“It was hailed as “historic”, “transformative’, ‘a game changer”, ‘masterstroke’ and so on. The reality is that 99.3% of the demonetised notes came back into the system. None of the objectives, especially destroying black money and clamping down on terror funding were achieved,” he wrote noting that “99.3 % of the demonetised notes” came back to the system, without achieving any of the demonetarization”s objectives.
In his post, he further said that the demonetisation, together with the badly designed Goods and Service Tax (GST) and the unplanned COVID-19 lockdown were a blow to the micro and small businesses. Many of these small businesses and factories, he says, have either closed or reduced their size. These small businesses have not recovered from the crisis created by the triple blow implemented by the government. He also pointed out that the stock market is booming, while the retail markets on the streets are yet to revive, indicating that the decisions of the government destroyed small businesses in the country.
The post also added, citing the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)’s report that 97. 38 % of the 2000 banknotes in circulation as of May 19, 2023, which were introduced after the demonetisation and then withdrawn recently have been returned, posing another blow to the government for its decision.
