RTI query on note ban: Congress lauds bold bureaucrats

With Prime Minister Narendra Modi in “departure lounge” bureaucrats are getting bolder, the Congress said on Monday, after an RTI response revealed that the RBI had not agreed with the NDA government’s reasoning on the need for demonetisation.

“Now it is clear that with the Modi government in the departure lounge, people in the bureaucracy are also getting courage and this RTI request was agreed after 26 months,” Congress leader Jairam Ramesh told reporters here.

Ramesh also alleged that demonetisation, issued through a ‘Tughlaqi farmaan’ (autocratic and arbitrary decision), had destroyed the Indian economy.

He was responding to reports about the RBI warning the Modi government about the short-term negative effect of demonetisation on growth and that it would have no impact on the campaign against black money.

“I am sure there will be more such truths coming out from within the government because I think people in the government have realised that after five years of bogus claims, five years of tall claims, the time has come for the truth to come out,” Ramesh said.

Ramesh claimed that demonetisation was a “money laundering scheme” and a future Congress government would investigate the abnormal increase in fund flows from tax havens.

“There would be an enquiry into abnormal deposits in the co-operative banks,” the Congress leader said.

He accused the Modi government of renaming central schemes launched by the previous UPA government and the truth about the same would be revealed in the coming days.