DeMo is Modi-made disaster: Congress

Hyderabad: Calling the demonetisation as “Modi Made Disaster”, the AICC spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala, former Maharashtra Chief Minister Prudhviraj Chouhan, Pondicherry Chief Minister Narayanaswamy and others said that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi would go down in the history alongside Muhammad Bin Tughlaq for “gross misadventure of demonetisation that wreaked havoc with India’s economy".

Demonetisation has failed to bring out black money, to curb corruption and control Maoist movement, the leaders said

Addressing the day-long training camp for Telangana Congress workers at Mallika Convention Hall in Shamshabad on Saturday, Surjewala said demonetisation could be aptly described as "Modi Made Disaster." He said former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh was proved right in calling the demonetisation as ‘organised loot and legalised plunder’.

Similarly, he said Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi had demanded an investigation through Joint Parliamentary Committee in the demonetisation scam, layers of which have now been unveiled by the RBI Annual Report.

The Congress leader said that the GDP data released on August 31, 2017 has reflected a decline from 9.2% to 5.7% and the picture of colossal economic pilferage of India’s economy. "This itself means a loss of over 3 lakh crores to the Economy, for which PM Modi is solely responsible. If morality is still a virtue in India’s polity, then it is time for PM Modi to introspect and demit the office he holds, besides apologising to the nation for the unpardonable blunder," he said.

Surjewala said Union BJP government, the Prime Minister and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley need to answer as to where the black money has gone. "RBI Report reflects that out of Rs15.44 lakh crore money in circulation at the time of demonetisation on November 8, 2016; Rs 15.28 lakh crore have been received back. It means that only Rs 16,000 crore did not come back, so far. Out of this Rs 16,000 crore, money deposited with Royal Banks of Nepal and Bhutan, money deposited in courts as ‘case property’/ confiscated by authorities (police/income tax/ED) and money lying with NRI’s abroad is yet to be accounted.

"Will Modi ji answer as to where has the black money gone, as almost the entire money has been re-deposited?" he asked. Further, he said that another reason given for demonetisation was detection of fake currency notes.

"RBI Report has revealed the falsehood of this claim also. Out of Rs 15.28 lakh crore currency received back, only Rs 41 crore currency was found to be fake i.e. 0.0013%. Once 99.998% currency has been found to be genuine, then the entire logic given by Prime Minister has utterly failed. Fake Currency in shape of the new Rs 500/Rs 2000 notes has already been detected," he said. The Congress leader said that the demonetisation also failed to curb terrorism and Naxalism.

Stating that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has miserably failed to flush out Rs 15 lakh crore black money within 100 days from foreign countries, Maharashtra former chief minister Prudviraj Chouhan alleged that the Prime Minister “duped” the people by demonetising Rs 1000 and 500 currency notes.

He did not achieve anything by this, he said. Corruption increased by 67 per cent after Modi became Prime minister. The real estate business fell down and small traders were affected severely with demonetisation, he said.