Demonetisation anniversary LIVE: Got freedom at night, lost it through demonetisation again at night, says DMK's Stalin

While the Opposition has decided to observe November 8 as 'Black Day', the ruling government, which has pitched demonetisation as a step to check black money, plans to celebrate the day as 'Anti-Black Money Day'.

IndiaToday.in  | Edited by Kritika Banerjee
New Delhi, November 8, 2017 | UPDATED 12:31 IST
People stood in long queues outside banks to deposit demonetised cash last year.People stood in long queues outside banks to deposit demonetised cash last year. Photo: Reuters.

It has been a year since Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared demonetisation of high-value currency in a televised address in the evening of November 8 last year. Since then, it has been one of the most debated and discussed decisions of the BJP government.

While the Opposition has been up in arms against the government's decision and has decided to observe November 8 as 'Black Day', the ruling government, which has pitched demonetisation as a step to check black money, plans to celebrate the day as 'Anti-Black Money Day'.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today thanked people for supporting the government's decision to demonetise high-value currency and said, "I bow to people of India for steadfastly supporting the several measures taken by the government to eradicate corruption and black money".

In an op-ed for a national daily, Rahul Gandhi today said that Narendra Modi bypassed the RBI to make the sudden announcement on demonetisation on November 8 last year. Countering the Prime Minister's claims that it has wiped out corruption, Rahul said the only thing wiped out is the "confidence in our once booming economy". 

HERE ARE THE LIVE UPDATES ON DEMONETISATION ANNIVERSARY:

  • Union minister Piyush Goyal attacked Rahul Gandhi for living in a dream and said the Congress is losing one election after the other. "Sheikh Chilli ke sapne dekh rahe hain Rahul ji. India is becoming Congress-free, they are being driven out of states, one after the other," the minister said.
  • Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad slammed the Modi government for the "death of 150 people" in the wake of demonetisation and said that the exercise yielded zero results. Taking a swipe at the Prime Minister, Lalu tweeted that demonetisation was based on "NINO--Nothing In, Nothing Out".
  • In Madurai, DMK working president M K Stalin said the party holding protests to mark November 8 as Black Day. "We got Independence at night, and through demonetisation we lost it at night," Stalin said. 
  • BJP MP and Modi critic Shatrughan Sinha tweeted, "Stop focusing only on elections and defending demonetisation. Start tackling the slow killer demon of pollution. Long term solution imperative."
  • Union Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said reducing cash flow to stone-pelters and terror organisations has been the biggest achievement of demonetisation. "Stone-pelters who were in thousands have reduced because their cash flow has been cut," she said. 
  • West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, who urged everyone to turn their Twitter displays black to protest against demonetisation, called note ban a "big scam" and described the decision as "DeMoDisaster".
  • Former finance minister P Chidambaram said "if government is confident of its decisions, why does it fear releasing these documents" referring to RBI Board's agenda, background note and Raghuram Rajan's note.
  • On the anniversary of demonetisation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi invites people to share their views on "efforts to uproot corruption and black money" through a survey on Narendra Modi app.
  • Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi calls demonetisation a "tragedy" and a "thoughtless act" by the Prime Minister that destroyed lives and livelihoods of millions of Indians.
THE DEMONETISATION DEBATE BETWEEN BJP GOVERNMENT AND OPPOSITION

On the eve of demonetisation, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that November 8, 2016 was a "black day" for the Indian economy and reiterated his earlier statement that note ban was "organised loot and legalised plunder".

In a sharp retort, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that "actual loot" was witnessed during the UPA government's rule. Calling demonetisation a morally and ethically correct decision, Jaitley called note ban a "watershed moment" that dealt a blow to black money and terror funding.

In the run up to demonetisation anniversary, former finance minister P Chidambaram called note ban a "foolish decision" by the BJP government that heaped more misery on people than a natural calamity would.

Demonetisation has also queered the election pitch of both the Congress and the BJP in poll-bound states of Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat. Addressing a rally in Himachal Pradesh, Narendra Modi said that while the Congress is "using all possible means to blame us but our fight against black money and corruption will continue".

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, during an election rally in Gujarat, hit out at the BJP government for dealing a severe blow to traders and farmers by rolling out demonetisation and then Goods and Services Tax (GST).