Demonetisation meant to help cronies: Rahul Gandhi

​New Delhi: Terming the demonetisation a "scam", Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said the primary purpose behind the exercise was to help "15-20 biggest crony capitalists" whose loans have turned into NPAs. "Why did he (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) do it (demonetisation)? His 15-20 big industrialist friends had accumulated NPAs worth thousands of crore. So through demonetisation your (common man's) money was taken out of your pocket and put directly in the pockets of the country's biggest crony capitalists," Gandhi told the media.

He said Modi's "friends" turned black money into  white after the November 2016 note ban. "For example, a cooperative bank in Gujarat whose Director is (BJP President) Amit Shah, exchanged Rs 700 crore in the wake of demonetisation. It cannot even be called a jumla, it can be called a scam," he added. "Indeed, Prime Minister Modi did what had not been done in the last 70 years... He did it and devastated the economy," the Congress president said.