Describing demonetisation as “the worst corruption as it proved to be the biggest diabolical method of money laundering since Independence,” CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury on Sunday charged that the BJP government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi had used it to convert black money and counterfeit currency into white money.
Addressing a meeting organised to release the Tamil translation of his select speeches in the Rajya Sabha, he said money laundering had favoured a few corporate houses and companies and 12% of the GDP had gone to 1% of the individuals in the country.
He said the BJP government had launched four types of attacks – on the country, the Constitution, the culture and the people – and it had totally ruined the economy of the country.
“It does not know how to revive the economy and provide relief to the people. The situation is explained by the fact that the Union Finance Secretary who authored the GST had called for its overhaul,” he said.
Mr. Yechury said even though the BJP government had claimed that it would have zero tolerance of corruption, it had not initiated any investigation into the alleged amassing of wealth by BJP leader Amit Shah’s son, the Panama Papers and on the Lalit Modi issue.
DMK MP Kanimozhi said though Mr. Yechury was a leader of a national party, his speeches and debates always gave the impression that he was a representative of Tamil Nadu. “His speeches reflected the ideology of Dravidar Kazhagam founder Periyar and he vigorously argued for shifting education from the Concurrent List to the State List. He fought against changing syllabus and history and converting schools as a recruitment ground for the RSS,” she said.
Former Congress MP E.M. Sudarsana Natchiappan said it was Mr. Yechury who exposed the true face of the RSS that cooperated with the British and betrayed the Quit India Movement in 1942.
CPI(M) MP T.K. Rangarajan released the book. VCK leader Vanniarasu and CPI leader M. Veerapandian were among those who spoke.