Suffering is huge, voters will vent their anger in elections: Akhilesh

NEW DELHI: The government’s decision to junk 500- and 1,000rupee notes has caused “huge suffering” to the common people who will vent their anger in the upcoming elections, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav said on Friday.

Speaking on the first day of the 14th Hindustan Times Leadership Summit, Yadav said the surprise decision to recall high-value bills had bolstered the Samajwadi Party ahead of state polls early next year.

“When you make common people suffer, they will vent their anger… because of the currency shortage, leaders of all parties will have to resort to the bicycle (the SP’s election symbol),” Yadav said to applause and laughter from the audience.

“Governments should work for people’s welfare by encouraging spending. But the BJP government has caused such difficulties to the common man. People are breaking down their ‘gullak’ (piggy banks) to meet daily needs,” Yadav said.

He rejected government claims thatthecurrencyswitchwillstamp out illegal cash, pointing to media reportsaboutfakevariantsof even thenewcurrencybills.“Fakedebit and credit cards are also available in the market,” he added. NEW DELHI: It is difficult to see major gains from India’s decision to drain out high-value banknotes from the economy, and the move might only force the corrupt to becomemorecarefulinthefuture, Nobel laureate and economist Paul Krugman said on Friday.

Instead, Krugman said, there will be significant-to-low costs to the so-called demonetisation, although he still saw India as a high-prospect economy.

Speaking at the 14th HT Leadership Summit, the 63-yearold economist said there was a good case to be made that high denomination banknotes didn’t serve a legitimate purpose.

“But that did not happen here. High-value notes are not being eliminated. This seems like a one-off attempt to flush out illicit cash,” Krugman said of the government decision to scrap 500and 1,000-rupee bills to purge the economy of illicit “black money”.

The government has issued new 500- and 2,000-rupee bills, and said it will later bring back new 1,000 notes as well.

Akhilesh Yadav