RIP Manmohan Singh: What did the former Prime Minister say on demonetisation?

Manmohan Singh, who served as the prime minister for two terms from 2004 to 2014, has been credited with spearheading India's economic reform process.

However, Singh was highly critical of demonetisation by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2016 and termed it "organised loot and legalised plunder".

As India mourns the demise of Manmohan Singh, track latest updates here

He alleged that the lack of any vision or understanding of the country's dynamics of the economy by the Narendra Modi-led government led to "disruptive" decisions such as demonetisation.

Demonetisation was perhaps the biggest scam of independent India, he had noted as per PTI.

Demonetisation was not an appropriate response to the black money issue, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had said in 2017 and suggested that the government simplify tax and administration systems to address it.

He had said that demonetisation had caused a lot of distress to farmers, and small industrialists, and many people died while standing in queues in front of banks to get cash because of the ban on Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes last year.

Asked how demonetisation affected India's economy, Singh had said it put the economy in a state of stagnation.

"There are people who believe that the economy will soon recover to its normal speed. I am doubtful. My own feeling is that the next one year, the economy will remain in doldrums and therefore demonetisation has harmed the process of economic development to that extent," PTI quoted him as saying.

Singh, the architect of India's economic reforms, passed away on Thursday night at Delhi's All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). He was 92.

The Congress leader, who steered the country for 10 years from 2004-2014 and helped set up India's economic framework as finance minister before that, was a renowned name in global financial and economic sectors.

(With PTI inputs)