Note ban a disaster imposed by Modi: CPM

The CPM on Thursday said the Indian economy is yet to recover from demonetisation, which it described as a "disaster" imposed on the country by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In a statement, the party Polit Bureau said all claims that demonetisation would unearth black money and end corruption have proven to be utterly false.

CPM General Secretary Sitaram Yechury tweeted, "Modi and his minions claimed demonetisation will end black money, finish corruption, terminate terrorism, and bring only digital transactions. Two years later, Modi is silent. The truth is that he singlehandedly destroyed the economy, lives and livelihoods."

The statement said with 99.4% of the banned notes back in the system, it is clear that demonetisation has, in fact, been the "avenue to convert black money into white helping the most corrupt".

"On the other hand, crores of people dependent on daily cash transactions have been devastated and more than 35 lakh workers in the unorganised sector have lost their livelihood. Similarly, the small and medium enterprises have suffered a huge loss in revenue. Nor has there been any impact on terrorist activities due to funding crunch as claimed by Modi at that time. On the contrary, official data reveals that incidents of terrorist attacks have more than doubled," it said.

With Finance Minister Arun Jaitley defending the government decision through a Facebook post, the statement said it condemned the "shameless defence". It held Jaitley as "equally responsible for the mess" in the Indian economy.