No jumla, this; it is a scam: Rahul

Congress president hits out at PM for helping his capitalist friends to turn black money into white

Congress president Rahul Gandhi was at his barbed best on Thursday as he launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi charging that demonetisation was inflicted on the nation to help the big businesses and crony capitalists. Elaborating on his charge, Rahuil said PM Modi's 10-15 capitalist friends were defaulters and he helped them turn their black money into white.

Warming up to his theme, Rahul said PM Modi must tell the country why this decision was taken which had wrecked the economy, something no PM had accomplished in the last 70 years.

Asked in this context whether he believed PM Modi should apologise to the nation, the Congress president said: "You apologise for a mistake, but PM Modi did this deliberately. Demonetisation was made to finish you."

Citing an example of how PM Modi's "friends" turned black money into white after the note ban, Gandhi said, a cooperative bank in Gujarat, whose Director is a top BJP functionary, exchanged Rs.700 crore in the wake of demonetization.

The scathing attack came even as Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, while defending demonetisation in his blog, said it led to formalisation of economy, more tax collection and higher growth. Jaitley has further asserted that the "larger purpose" of demonetisation was to move India from a tax non-compliant society to a tax-compliant one.

‘‘It cannot even be called a jumla, it can only be called a scam," he added.

The scathing attack came even as Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, while defending demonetization in his blog, said it led to formalisation of economy, more tax collection and higher growth. Jaitley has further asserted that the "larger purpose" of demonetisation was to move India from a tax non-compliant society to a tax-compliant one.

However, Gandhi was adamant that Modi had promised to the nation that with demonetisation, black money, fake currency and terror financing would end, but the RBI report had established that it completely failed on all the three counts.

‘‘The result has been that all the money came back to the RBI. The PM must answer for this. Why did you inflict such an injury on the nation, its youth, its shopkeepers and its small businesses,” Gandhi asked, while addressing a press conference at the party headquarters.

The NPAs (non-productive assets) of banks were just Rs 2.5 lakh crore when the UPA government stepped down, while it is now over Rs 12 lakh crore, he underlined.