BJP, Opposition lock horns over DeMo

Continued from Page 1 his decision was aimed at wiping out corruption. Twelve months on, the only thing he has wiped out is confidence in our once booming economy.”

Mr Gandhi, now camping in Surat, Gujarat, described demonetisation as an “attack on the Indian economy”. Former finance minister P. Chidambaram said that in the interests of transparency, the government/RBI should release the RBI board’s agenda, background note and (former governor) Raghuram Rajan’s note. “If the government is confident of its decision, why does it fear releasing these documents?” The BJP was quick to target Mr Gandhi, saying the ex-serviceman whose photograph he has tweeted to pan demonetisation has publicly supported the note ban, and claimed that he is turning the Indian National Congress into the “Indian Fake News Congress”.

The government fielded I&B minister Smriti Irani to hit back, who said the note ban decision was “definitely a tragedy for the Gandhi family”.

At a press conference in Lucknow, she took a dig at the Congress vice-president, saying it was definitely a tragedy for the gentleman who had wanted to withdraw `4,000 just for show, and then took long breaks in overseas destinations unknown to many Indians. The Opposition, led by the Congress, has made the issue of demonetisation, coupled with “hasty” implementation of the GST, a poll plank in the coming Himachal and Gujarat elections. Most Opposition parties held protests across the country on separate platforms in protest against the note ban. Lashing out at the Modi government, the Left parties said for the first time in India’s history, a government was “celebrating” death and suffering. “The Modi government has created two records in the world. One, it made people stand in queues and many people lost their lives; second, though Modi tried to tell the people and the world that by demonetisation he would stop black money, in reality he has helped hoarders change black money into white,” CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat said at a rally on the first anniversary of demonetisation.