Indian govt, opposition parties lock horns over one year of cash ban

NEW DELHI — India on Wednesday completed one year of demonetization, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government observing it as “Anti-Black Money Day” and opposition parties marking it a “Black Day” in protest against the move.

In a sudden televised address on Nov 8 last year, Modi announced the scrapping of currency notes of 500 and 1,000 rupees ($7.7 and $15.4 respectively), saying that it would wipe out black money from society, curb corruption and prevent the circulation of counterfeit notes among terrorists.

One year on, the Indian government said the measure is succeeded in curtailing the shadow economy that ran on black money and prevented the use of illicit and counterfeit cash to fund illegal activity and terrorism.

The prime minister was the first to take to Twitter to hail the “success” of demonetization and thank the people for supporting the move.

“I bow to the people of India for steadfastly supporting the measures taken by the government to eradicate corruption and black money,” he said.

However, the Congress-led opposition parties locked horns with the government as they observed the “Black Day” by holding protests across India.

Nehru-Gandhi scion and Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi hit out at Modi, saying the cash ban was a “thoughtless act” that affected the livelihoods of millions of Indians.

“Demonetization is a tragedy. We stand with millions of honest Indians, whose lives and livelihoods were destroyed by PM’s thoughtless act,” he said.

Another opposition leader and Chief Minister of the eastern state of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, turned her Twitter display picture black to protest against the move on the first anniversary of the event.

Former prime minister Manmohan Singh of Congress party on Tuesday slammed Modi for the sudden decision to demonetize higher denomination currency notes, saying it affected the country’s economic growth.

Soon after that, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley termed demonetization as a watershed moment in the history of country’s economy and slammed the Congress party for not supporting the move aimed at curbing black money.