Rahul says note ban deliberate

An aggressive Rahul Gandhi on Thursday launched a two-pronged offensive against Prime Minister Narendra Modi on demonetisation and Rafale deal, terming them as huge scams which were committed to help his “crony capitalist friends”.

In a no-holds-barred attack on Mr Modi, the Congress chief alleged that the noteban “scam” was deliberately inflicted on common people by the PM who owes an answer to the country on why he did so, and demanded a JPC probe into the Rafale issue saying the country wants to know “what is the deal between the Prime Minister and businessman Anil Ambani”.

He alleged that there was much to hide in the Rafale deal and that is why Mr Modi was inclined to go for a JPC.

Addressing a press conference a day after the RBI in its final report said almost all the demonetised currency has returned to the banking system, he said the note ban decision was not a mistake but an “assault” on the common man.

“Noteban is nothing less than a huge scam and evidence is slowly coming out. You apologise when you make a mistake. Demonetisation was not a mistake, but done deliberately by the Prime Minister as a well thought-out attack on you (the people of India) with the intention of helping his 15-20 crony capitalist friends.

“His aim was to help big crony capitalists who have marketed him, by handing over the money snatched from the pockets of common people,” Mr Gandhi told reporters.

“Mr Modi should answer why he inflicted the deep wound like demonetisation when issues like unemployment and low GDP rate remained,” the Congress president said.