On the second anniversary of demonetisation, the Opposition hit out at the Narendra Modi government, saying that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had failed to explain the rationale behind the exercise.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, one of the first Opposition leaders to flag demonetisation and call it the “darkest day for India”, said in a statement that there was a hidden agenda behind the decision to demonetise.
“Who benefited from the decision? Why was the decision taken? To satisfy whom? I have a suspicion that the decision was taken to satisfy the agenda of a few people,” Ms. Banerjee said. The Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief said the worst sufferers of demonetisation were the agriculture sector, small businessmen, labourers, farmers, the unemployed, domestic workers, poor traders, and others.
“The economy is now totally depressed. Business is now...oppressed and common people are completely suppressed. The value of the rupee has gone down,” she added.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Politburo in a statement said that the Indian economy is yet to recover from the disaster [of demonetisation] imposed on it. The party said that, contrary to claims to unearth black money and end corruption, 99.4% notes are back in the system. “It is clear that demonetisation has, in fact, been the avenue to convert black money into white, helping the most corrupt,” the Politburo said.
The exercise hurt the most vulnerable, the CPI(M) said. More than 35 lakh workers in the unorganised sector had lost their livelihood. The party sought to remind the Narendra Modi government that demonetisation had had no impact on terrorist activities.
Joining the chorus, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said that the government had been unable to explain itself over the “self-inflicted deep wound” on the Indian economy.
“Though the list of financial scams of the Modi government is endless, demonetisation was a self-inflicted deep wound on Indian economy, and why the country was pushed into such a disaster remains a mystery even two years later,” he added.