150 eminent citizens join forces against denomination

Opposing the government’s move to demonetise higher denominations, more than 150 eminent citizens, representing different sections of society, have collectively condemned Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s surgical strike on black money. 

In joint press statement, representatives of civil societies, said, “The common person has been beggared and struggling to meet even basic necessities. Till date, 22 persons have died as a result of chaos and crisis that the demonetisation has brought. The situation is likely to deteriorate as people’s patience wears thin over the days and therefore, a rollback or the very least suspension of demonetisation has been demanded.” “We all support efforts of the government to stop corruption, stamp out black money and counterfeit currency, and the act against funding that helps creates unrest in the country – be it through terrorism or creating divisions and hatred among people. However, the decision to demonetize Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes is misconceived and will not address the problem of black money,” the press note said.

“If it is the government’s case that high value denomination currency is used to hoard black money, then the decision to reissue new Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes does not make sense. Issuing even higher value Rs 2000 note is completely inexplicable and puzzling,” the release said. They further said that in the last 5 years, IT raids have found that only 5-6 per cent of black money is kept in hard cash.  The eminent people, who have condemned the government’s demonetisation decision, include economists Prabhat Patnaik, Jayati Ghosh, social activist Prashant Bhushan, Nayantara Sahgal, Anand Patwardhan, Syeda Hameed, MK Raina, Vivan Sundaram, Pamela Philipose, and Justice (retd.) Chandru Krishnaswami.