Upper House disrupted over varied sizes of Rs 500 notes
NEW DELHI: The Congress on Tuesday kicked up a major storm in the Rajya Sabha, complaining about the RBI printing two types of Rs 500 currency notes and alleging that demonetisation was the biggest scam of the century. This led to frayed tempers and repeated adjournments of the house, without any business being conducted.
The issue created such an uproar, during which the two sides traded heated exchanges, that the house was adjourned six times before the final adjournment for the day.
Trouble began from the word go soon after the house met for the day when Congress member Kapil Sibal raked up the issue, claiming that the Reserve Bank of India was printing two types of Rs 500 currency notes.
“The RBI prints two types of currency notes. These are of different size and different design... How is it possible?” he said, displaying images of two Rs 500 denomination notes pasted on a placard.
Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad alleged that the demonetisation was the “biggest scam of this century”..
Other opposition leaders also sided with the Congress. BJP ministers protested against raising the issue, citing technical grounds.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who is also Leader of the House, accused the opposition of raising “frivolous” issues day after day.
“There is no such provision that you can flash any paper any time and say this is Point of Order. There are rules under which you give notice. You can’t raise issues with regard to the currency and make such irresponsible statements. You have been raising frivolous issues everyday during the Zero Hour,” Jaitley said.