BJP plans anti-black money day on Nov 8

AN UNIMPRESSED OPPOSITION ON THE OTHER HAND, SLAMMED THE DEMONETISATION MOVE FOR BRINGING HARDSHIP TO THE PUBLIC AND SAID IT DEALT A HUGE BLOW TO THE ECONOMY

NEWDELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party will observe ‘ anti-black money day’ on November 8 —,the anniversary of demonetisation.

The Opposition however, plans to stage protests on the same day and mark it as a ‘black day’.

“Anti-black money day will be a priority programme for the BJP,” finance minister Arun Jaitley said at a press conference in party headquarters on Wednesday. “Union ministers, office bearers of BJP and other senior leaders will travel across the country to highlight the government’s initiatives to deal with black money,” he added.

Between now and November 8, Jaitley said, the BJP will try to create a public opinion in favour of the government efforts.

Jaitley spoke further about some of the initiatives taken up to combat black money since Modi came into power in 2014. “Curbing black money ...is not achieved through baby steps,” he said.

An unimpressed Opposition on the other hand, slammed the demonetisation move for bringing hardship to the public and said it dealt a huge blow to small and medium enterprises, negatively affecting economic growth and jobs.

On Tuesday, four Left parties met to chalk out their protest plans over demonetisation. They appealed to people to come forward against “the inhuman attacks” that resulted in “worst form of miseries” during the time of the note ban.

“What has been said about the economy is not true...it is wrong to say that the country’s economic fundamentals are strong. The finance minister claiming that India’s economy is the world’s fastest growing is incorrect and factually wrong,” senior Congress leader Anand Sharma told reporters.

He said the Modi government had “hurt” the economy and “put it in the ICU” with job losses and hardships to farmers and businessmen as well as labourers and common people.

Jaitley hit out at the Congress for not taking “a single significant step” against black money despite having “adequate opportunity” to be in power. He also said the Congress has not understood the object behind the demonesitatio.

“Confiscation of money was never the object of demonetisation,” Jaitley said, as he listed out several other objectives such as squeezing the quantum of cash, increasing the tax base, increasing digitisation efforts in the country, squeezing the resources of terrorists and detecting counterfeit currency.