Cong to observe Nov 8 as black day
Party will organise nationwide protests to highlight the failure of demonetisation
NEW DELHI: The Congress will observe ‘black day’ on November 8 to mark the completion of one year of demonetisation, alleging that the BJP-led NDA government’s move not only inflicted “misery” on people but also dealt a “body blow” to the economy.
The main opposition party is planning a nationwide protest to highlight the failure of the decision to scrap ₹500 and ₹1,000 notes to weed out black money.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had made the surprise announcement on November 8 last year.
Congress leaders and spokespersons will fan out across the country to inform the people about the impact of demonetisation on the economy.
The party’s research cell is preparing a comprehensive data sheet and detailed documents to substantiate their claim that the note ban failed to achieve the desired results.
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi had termed the move a “colossal disaster that cost innocent lives and ruined” the economy. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, an economist, too had slammed the decision, calling it “monumental mismanagement and a case of organised loot and legalised plunder”.
“On November 8 last year, the hard-earned money of the people turned into paper. The unanswered question is, where is the black money? Or was this the greatest money laundering exercise that free India has ever seen? Whatever it was, truth has a way of surfacing,” Congress spokesperson Tom Vadakkan said.
The Youth Congress too will hold nationwide demonstrations on the day.
“Our PM had asked for 50 days and promised that everything will be good. The people gave him 365 days, yet nothing happened. All that we hear is hollow promises, jargons and slogans,” Youth Congress spokesperson Amrish Ranjan Pandey said.
The Congress’ attack on the PM sharpened after the RBI indicated that almost 99% of scrapped notes returned to the banking system, thereby indicating low efficacy of the recall of high-value currency notes that wiped ₹15.44 lakh crore out of circulation.
According to the RBI report, ₹15.28 lakh crore returned to the system by way of public deposits. Thus, only ₹16,000 crore of old notes didn’t return to banks.
The opposition party has repeatedly demanded an apology from Modi.
“The PM should come out and apologise to the nation and the kin of all those who lost their lives standing in queue for exchanging old currency notes,” Pandey said.