Taking his battle against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the decision on demonetisation outside Delhi, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday slammed the former for “waging a war” against poor people.
Addressing a crowd at the anaj mandi (grain market) in Dadri, in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh, the Congress vice-president alleged that demonetisation was a means for the Modi government to waive the bad loans of the corporates using the hard-earned money of the poor.
While interacting with the local residents of Dadri, Mr. Gandhi said, “Modi ji wants your money to be in the banks for the maximum possible time. The reason for this is that he wants to use your hard earned money to write off bad loans of his corporate friends.”
‘Shifting goalposts’
Mr. Gandhi accused Mr Modi of the shifting goalposts since November 8 when the government demonetised the Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes.
“The Prime Minister's narrative over demonetisation has repeatedly changed. First he pitched it as a move aimed at ending corruption and counterfeiting. But as the month progressed, the narrative seemed to have shifted towards war against terror. After a month progressed, he has started talking about digitisation and making the society cashless,” added Mr. Gandhi.
“Prime Minister Modi is talking about making the society cashless. People are suffering as they have actually gone cashless,” Mr Gandhi said.
Least-affected group
He also told the gathering that while Mr Modi pitched demonetisation as a move against black money hoarders, it was the illegal group which was “least affected”.
“Do you see even a single rich person or black money hoarder in queue? They are having no such problem as they are taking money from back doors,” he alleged.
“The government says demonetisation was against fake currency. But fake currency is only 0.02 paisa in every Rs. 100,” the Congress vice-president told Dadri’s residents.
