Dazzle of numbers can’t hide demonetisation devastation: P Chidambaram
NEW DELHI: Former finance minister P Chidambaram has said the recent recall of high denomination currencies failed to achieve any of the objectives the Centre had listed: Stamping out black money, checking counterfeit notes and ending terror funding.
Speaking at a convention organised by the AICC legal cell in New Delhi on Friday, Chidambaram questioned the accuracy of the GDP data and asserted, “dazzle of number’s can’t hide the devastating effect of the demonetisation” on the economy.
Dubbing the Modi regime as “the most anti-intellectual government,” the senior Congress leader chided it “for not showing any respect to even what somebody like Amartya Sen or Harvard and Cambridge economists were saying.”
“So much unaccounted cash is being seized from states where elections are being held. A former chief secretary of Tamil Nadu, a mining baron in AP and a lawyer are among those arrested with huge chunks of the new notes... corruption has its own way of getting into the system and it does not make any difference whether the note is new or old,” Chidambaram said. The former FM said the impact of demonetisation would last for 12-18 months.
Questioning the GDP projection, Chidambaram argued that demonetisation had particularly affected 25 crore daily-wagers, 15 crore daily-income earners and led to closure of many small and medium industrial units in all major industrial towns across India and return of migrant labourers to their homes.
“Ironically, the demand for MGNREGA work has gone up after demonetisation,” he said.
Speaking after Chidambaram, former Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia too felt the recovery from the effects of demonetisation will take a long time. He expressed scepticism about the accuracy of the latest GDP numbers, especially on the informal sector.
Maintaining that only structural reforms and policy initiatives would check corruption and usher in transparency, Ahluwalia felt that if GST is finally rolled out, it will be a major reform.
He said that the government must come out with a list of reforms and policies that can help check corruption and usher in transparency. Former Union law minister Kapil Sibal called demonetisation “the biggest scam” and asked BJP to explain “how it was spending crores of rupees” in UP and other states where polls were held recently. He said the note-recall has left all sections of society, especially the weakest, badly hit.
Citing government data, Chidambaram argued that the Gross Value Addition (GVA) figures showed economic slowdown and the Q4 data of national income would confirm that the economy has been hit "very very badly" by the currency recall. "It is clear from the government's GVA data that the economy is in a clear declining trend...,” he said.
Speaking at a convention organised by the AICC legal cell in New Delhi on Friday, Chidambaram questioned the accuracy of the GDP data and asserted, “dazzle of number’s can’t hide the devastating effect of the demonetisation” on the economy.
Dubbing the Modi regime as “the most anti-intellectual government,” the senior Congress leader chided it “for not showing any respect to even what somebody like Amartya Sen or Harvard and Cambridge economists were saying.”
“So much unaccounted cash is being seized from states where elections are being held. A former chief secretary of Tamil Nadu, a mining baron in AP and a lawyer are among those arrested with huge chunks of the new notes... corruption has its own way of getting into the system and it does not make any difference whether the note is new or old,” Chidambaram said. The former FM said the impact of demonetisation would last for 12-18 months.
Questioning the GDP projection, Chidambaram argued that demonetisation had particularly affected 25 crore daily-wagers, 15 crore daily-income earners and led to closure of many small and medium industrial units in all major industrial towns across India and return of migrant labourers to their homes.
“Ironically, the demand for MGNREGA work has gone up after demonetisation,” he said.
Speaking after Chidambaram, former Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia too felt the recovery from the effects of demonetisation will take a long time. He expressed scepticism about the accuracy of the latest GDP numbers, especially on the informal sector.
Maintaining that only structural reforms and policy initiatives would check corruption and usher in transparency, Ahluwalia felt that if GST is finally rolled out, it will be a major reform.
He said that the government must come out with a list of reforms and policies that can help check corruption and usher in transparency. Former Union law minister Kapil Sibal called demonetisation “the biggest scam” and asked BJP to explain “how it was spending crores of rupees” in UP and other states where polls were held recently. He said the note-recall has left all sections of society, especially the weakest, badly hit.
Citing government data, Chidambaram argued that the Gross Value Addition (GVA) figures showed economic slowdown and the Q4 data of national income would confirm that the economy has been hit "very very badly" by the currency recall. "It is clear from the government's GVA data that the economy is in a clear declining trend...,” he said.
