Cong slams Modi on note ban barb

: Congress president Rahul Gandhi and former finance minister P Chidambaram fired another salvo at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his sudden decision to ban high-value currency notes that, they said, has hurt farmers and destroyed small industries.

Chidambaram, who was the first to launch his tweet-strike, picked on a justification for the decision that PM Modi had given yesterday. The prime minister had, speaking at a rally in Jhabua in Madhya Pradesh, explained his notes ban decision as a bitter medicine necessitated due to the spread of corruption during the Congress regime so that black money “stashed under beds” could be brought back into the country’s treasury.

“The truth, Mr Prime Minister, is that you used note ban as a ‘tez’ (bitter) medicine to destroy MSME. Now, Government wants RBI to revive that sector!,” Chidambaram wrote about demonetisation.

“The notes ban has destroyed the lives of crores of farmers. Now they don’t have enough money to buy seeds or fertilisers. But even today, the Modi government is making fun of the helpless farmers’ plight. Now, even his agriculture ministry is saying that demonetisation broke the farmers’ back,” Gandhi tweeted after Chidambaram.

Modi had said: “When termites strike, the most poisonous chemical is required to treat it. Corruption spread on such a scale during Congress regime that I had to use a bitter pill of demonetisation to treat the same so that those who looted the poor returned the money to the country’s treasury.”

On November 8, 2016, Prime Minister Modi announced that the ₹1,000 and ₹500 notes would be rendered invalid from midnight. Since then, the Opposition and other parties have criticised the move . Although opposition parties have made it a poll issue, the prime minister and the ruling BJP says it is a success and that it has helped remove black money and had reduced corruption.

NEW DELHI