In continuation with the attacks on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over demonetisation, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, on Friday, said that demonetisation was Mr. Modi's conspiracy to benefit the rich by fleecing the poor.
Addressing a rally in poll-bound Uttarakhand's Almora town Mr. Gandhi said that Mr. Modi has been taking such “anti-poor” decisions for the past two and a half years and that demonetisation was yet another decision to "extract [money] from the poor for the rich to reap the benefits" of the move.
While the Central government had the list of the account holders in the Swiss banks, the list had not been released in the Parliament yet. “Why have the names not been released yet if the government is so serious about tackling the issue of black money?... Why do we all not have the Rs 15 lakh in our bank accounts that Mr. Modi had promised?” he said while taking a jibe at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by quoting a Hindi film song: Ram naam japna, gareebon ka maal apna . In the name of Lord Rama, the BJP leaders fleece the poor, he said.
“Not all black money is in cash, and not all cash is black money... By taking the demonetisation decision Modi ji has treated the people of this country as if they were black money hoarders,” Mr. Gandhi said.
While Mr. Modi had said that the situation would return to normal within 50 days, Mr. Gandhi said normalcy would not return for six to seven months.
“Modi ji had said that the situation would return to normalcy in 50 days, but the truth is that your money is locked for six to seven months... Modi ji is doing this because he wants waiver off huge loans of the super rich industrialists and the money of the poor, the middle class will be used for it,” Mr. Gandhi said.
