Congress, BJP face-off on fourth anniversary of demonestisation

Rahul Gandhi claimed that noteban was a “well thought out” plan to snatch money from the common man

Congress on Sunday went all out to launch a fresh offensive against Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the fourth anniversary of demonetisation, accusing him of destroying the Indian economy.

Even as Congress leaders posted videos on social media slamming demonetisation, Modi hailed it as a success, saying the surprise move had helped reduce black money, increase tax compliance and gave a boost to transparency.

“These outcomes have been greatly beneficial towards nation’s progress,” the Prime Minister said.

Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi led the party’s social media campaign against demonetisation, claiming that noteban was a “well thought out” plan to snatch money from the common man and hand it over to Modi’s “crony capitalist friends”.

Senior Congress leaders such as P Chidambaram, Mallikarjun Kharge, Shashi Tharoor and Salman Khurshid and ordinary party workers joined the online campaign by posting videos and messages slamming Modi over demonetisation.

Union Ministers Nirmala Sitharaman, Piyush Goyal among others countered the Congress, listing out the achievements of demonetisation, pitching it as a move to weed out corruption.

Congress leaders addressed press conferences across the country to criticise the Prime Minister for noteban and constantly changing the reasons that triggered the move.

“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 any harm. The BJP-led NDA government did great harm to India's economy on November 8th, 2016,” former Finance Minister P Chidambaram said in a video message.

“Don’t be under any illusion, this was not a mistake but done on purpose,” Rahul Gandhi said adding that demonetisation was a planned attack on the Indian economy which has now fallen behind that of Bangladesh.

“The government cites Covid as the reason for slowing down of the economy. But, Bangladesh also faced, Covid as did the entire world. How only India got left behind?,” the former Congress President asked.

"The reason is noteban and faulty implementation of the GST,” Gandhi said.

“Modi ji's government continuously changed the explanations for carrying out demonetisation,” AICC General Secretary Ajay Maken told reporters here.