On the third anniversary of demonetisation on Friday, Congress president Sonia Gandhi made a scathing attack on the Central government and said the party would ensure that “the nation never forgets or forgives the Tughlaqi blunder”.
Her son and former Congress chief, Rahul Gandhi, described it as a “terror attack” that destroyed the Indian economy.
In a statement, Ms. Gandhi said the Prime Minister and his colleagues had never taken responsibility for the “faux pas” that claimed over 120 lives, took away livelihoods and proved a death knell for India’s medium and small businesses.
‘Short-sighted move’
“No matter how much the Modi government may try and evade responsibility for this ludicrous and short-sighted measure, the nation and its people will ensure that they are held accountable,” Ms. Gandhi said.
“The Prime Minister and his colleagues have stopped speaking about demonetisation since 2017, hoping that the nation will forget. Unfortunately for them, the Congress will ensure that neither the nation nor history, forgives or forgets. Because unlike the BJP, we serve in the ‘National Interest’,” she added.
“Demonetisation is perhaps the single most appropriate metaphor for the BJP’s ill-conceived governance model,” said the Congress chief and claimed that the note ban neither brought out black money, lowered militant attacks or put an end to counterfeit currency.
“What it did instead, was to wipe out over one crore jobs from the economy (and still counting), take the unemployment rate to a 45-year high, shaved two full percentage points off GDP growth and ensured that India’s international rating moved from ‘stable’ to ‘negative’. It is now widely acknowledged as a herculean blunder by independent economists and taught across the world as a cautionary tale of ‘what governments should not do’,” Ms. Gandhi said.
A terror attack: Rahul
“It’s 3 yrs since the Demonetisation terror attack that devastated the Indian economy, taking many lives, wiping out lakhs of small businesses & leaving millions of Indians unemployed. Those behind this vicious attack have yet to be brought to justice,” Rahul Gandhi, who is currently out of the country, tweeted with the hashtag #DeMonetisationDisaster.
Former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said demonetisation cost the country at least 5% of the GDP in the last three years. “5% of GDP roughly equals to several thousand lakh crores of rupees of output. Should the country send a bill to the BJP for that amount?” asked Mr. Chidambaram’s family in a tweet on his behalf.
The Congress linked the current economic slowdown to demonetisation. At a press conference, senior leader Ajay Maken claimed that the government changed its stated objectives and goal eight times: from unearthing black money and ending corruption to cracking down on terrorism to bringing down real estate prices and widening the tax base.
“3 years since #Demonetisation and every claim made by the government and those hailing it as a slayer of all evils has been turned on its head. It proved to be a disaster that has all but destroyed our economy. Anyone want to claim responsibility?” tweeted Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
