Sidhu, Jakhar hit out at Modi govt, say demonetisation was organised loot
CHANDIGARH: The Punjab Congress launched a twin attack on the Narendra Modi government on the second anniversary of demonetisation.
State local bodies minister Navjot Sidhu, who did a Facebook live on the Indian Youth Congress (IYC) page on Thursday, which clocked over 7,000 views, hit out at the BJP for “demonetising” Indian rupee globally saying it had never dipped so low against the US dollar, euro and pound.
Taking a jibe at the “Hindutva” doctrine of the saffron party, Sidhu said Hinduism teaches keeping one’s word. “My mother was a Hindu and my father was a Sikh. My mother taught me Hinduism means “pran jaaye par vachan na jaaye (one should keep one’s word even at cost of one’s life)”. But all Modi did was make false promises. Where is the black money he promised to bring back to the country? Where is ₹15 lakh he promised in everyone’s bank accounts,” Sidhu said while addressing a press conference here.
He alleged that banks owned by BJP leaders pocketed ₹22,000 crore after note ban. “It was nothing but a way to turn black money into white. It was organised loot,” Sidhu said.
He claimed India was the only country where higher denomination notes were printed after demonetisation. “Now, 80% notes in circulation are of ₹2,000. Does a poor man use a ₹2,000 note? It finished the unorganised sector, medium and small scale industries and made big corporates richer,” he said.
Punjab Congress president and Lok Sabha MP from Gurdaspur Sunil Jakhar held a demonstration in front of regional office of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) here to protest against demonetisation and targeted the Modi government’s plan to draw ₹3 lakh crore more from reserves of the RBI.
Accompanied by cabinet minister Balbir Singh Sidhu and Youth Congress leader Yadwinder Singh Kang, Jakhar said neither black money came out nor was it controlled.
“If anything happened, it was a few business houses turning black money into white while millions of small traders, farmers and middle class people are still struggling to earn their livelihood. The BJP had promised 2 crore jobs every year to the youth but demonetisation made 35 lakh people jobless as small businesses were hit,” Jakhar said.
All Modi did was make false promises. Where is the black money he promised to bring back to the country? Where is ₹15 lakh he promised in everyone’s bank accounts.
NAVJOT SINGH SIDHU, local bodies minister