On the fourth anniversary of demonetisation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said the move helped in reducing black money, increase tax compliance and formalisation of the economy. Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi blamed it for “destroying” India’s economy that allowed even Bangladesh to “surpass” India.
“Demonetisation has helped reduce black money, increase tax compliance and formalisation and given a boost to transparency. These outcomes have been greatly beneficial towards national progress,” Mr. Modi tweeted with the hashtag #DeMolishingCorruption.
On his Twitter handle, the Prime Minister also shared graphics on how demonetisation has ensured better tax compliance, improved tax and GDP ratio, made India a lesser cash-based economy and gave a boost to national security by tackling counterfeit notes and cutting the source of terror financing.
On November 8, 2016, Mr. Modi announced his government’s decision to ban all currency notes of ₹500 and ₹1,000 from midnight.
But the Congress observed the day as Vishwasghaat Diwas (Betrayal Day) and launched the party’s online campaign “SpeakUpAgainst DeMoDisaster”.
Also read | 99.3% of demonetised currency returned: RBI
In a video, released as part of this campaign, Mr. Gandhi held demonetisation responsible for Bangladesh doing better than India in terms of economic growth and alleged that the move “destroyed” India’s economy and only helped Mr. Modi’s “crony capitalist friends”.
Talking on Bangladesh “surpassing” India, Mr. Gandhi said, “The government says the reason is COVID but if that is the reason, there is COVID in Bangladesh and elsewhere in the world also. The reason is not COVID, the reason is Notebandi [demonetisation] and GST.”
“Pradhan Mantri ji said it was a a fight against black money. This was a lie. The attack was on you, Narendra Modi wanted to snatch your money and give it to his two or three crony capitalist friends. You stood in lines, not his crony capitalist friends. You put your money in banks and PM Modi gave that money to his friends and gave them a loan waiver of ₹3,50,000 crore,” he alleged.
Also read | Three years since demonetisation, cash is back
‘Assault on economy’
“Four years ago, Prime Minister Narendra Modi began an assault on the Indian economy. He hurt farmers, labourers and small shopkeepers. Manmohan Singhji said the economy will lose 2% and that is what we saw,” the former Congress chief said.
The Congress leader claimed that the Modi government’s “faulty” goods and services tax destroyed small, middle-sized businesses and “cleared the way for his three or four crony capitalist friends”, and now the government was targeting to “finish off” the farmers with the new farms bills.
“Narendra Modiji destroyed the pride of India — our economy. Now, we have to get together to rebuild it,” the Congress leader said.
At a separate press conference, Congress general secretary Ajay Maken accused the government of changing its narrative to explain the rationale of demonetisation — from countering black money and corruption, to stemming “counterfeit,” to making India a “digital or cashless” economy, to bringing back idle savings into banks. Asserting that 99.3% of the demonetised currency came back to the system, Mr. Maken alleged, “As far as corruption is concerned, we have seen a surge in the use of immense money power in poaching MLAs and destabilising non-BJP led State governments.”
Former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, as part of the campaign, said,“The first lesson every ruler and every government must learn is that — even if you do not do good to the people, do not do harm. The BJP-led NDA government did great harm to India’s economy on November 8th, 2016.”
Senior Congress leaders including Mallikarjun Kharge, Shashi Tharoor and Salman Khurshid also targeted the government as part of the party’s online campaign.