The question who decided to demonetise and was economist Raghuram Rajan forced to go because of the impending note ban, has come back to haunt Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Cabinet following the RBI’s annual report released on Wednesday. As per the report all but 1.4% of the 1,000 rupee note that was banned on November 8 last year has returned to the banking system. The CPI (M) has posed this and several other questions to the government on demonetisation.
Calling it a successful exercise of money laundering where the black money was converted with the help of the government into white, CPI (M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury said the four objectives that Prime Minister Narendra Modi detailed in his address to the nation on November 8 — bringing back black money, ending corruption, suffocating terrorist funding and tackling counterfeit currency — have not been met.
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Mr Yechury said that there question on who decided to demonetise remains unanswered. The government claimed that the decision was taken by RBI, while, the RBI officials when they deposed in front of the committee said that the government asked for their opinion on demonetisation.
“More than 100 people died in queues, trying to get their own money. There has not been a paisa of compensation and not an FIR filed to investigate their deaths,” Mr. Yechury added.
CPI (M) also criticised government for shifting goalposts. Mr Yechury said that cash free economy and digitisation were never a goal of demonetisation. Recalling the JIO and Paytm advertisements where Prime Minister featured, Mr Yechury asked, “Clearly the idea was to give a profit bonanza to international and domestic players.”
ADVERTISEMENT
He however clarified that CPI (M) is not demanding Prime Minister’s resignation. “No point demanding resignation from this government. Does it work? Only a government with some moral authority could be shamed into resigning,” he added.