Manmohan, Jaitley spar over note ban

Charges flew thick and fast between the government and the main opposition party over what demonetistion had achieved for the economy on Tuesday, a day before the first anniversary of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s tectonic decision to ban high-value banknotes.

In a blog early on in the day, finance Minister Arun Jaitley called the move an “ethical drive” that had cleansed the economy. Hours later, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh termed the scrapping of 500-and 1000-rupee currency bills as “organised loot and legalised plunder”.

By rendering high-value notes illegal in one stroke and imposing restrictions on how the money could be returned to banks, the government had intended to make it difficult for hoarders of undeclared wealth, or black money, to exchange their undeclared cash for legal tender.

But opposition parties have accused the government of crimping the economy with the demonetisation decision.

To mark its first anniversary, the government has planned a publicity blitzkrieg to show the success of demonetisation while the Congress and other Opposition parties have geared up to observe it as a “black day”.

Singh said the NDA government had not learnt lessons from their “monumental blunder”.

NEWDELHI: Demonetisation was organised loot and legalised plunder. Does questioning the GST and demonetisation make one a tax evader? An antiblack money drive is (an) ethical drive, a moral step. And what is morally and ethically correct has to be politically correct