Cong attacks PM on demonetisation

Congress today attacked the Prime Minister Narendra Modi for demonetisation and lack of job creation in the country.

Anand Sharma, former Cabinet Minister, who was the last member to participate in the debate on Motion of Thanks on the President's Address, said the government has failed in all the three goals that were given for initiating the currency pullback on November 8 last year.

"86 per cent of the currency accounting for around Rs 15 lakh crore was taken off. The PM said the action has been taken to check black money, counterfeit notes and terror funding. All the three goals were not achieved," Sharma said.

The money, which was taken off as a result of PM's dramatic announcement on November 8 belonged to poor people, he asserted.

Terming the decision as disastrous, Sharma said three months have passed but still normalcy hasn't returned in the banking system in the country.

"It is just you who are celebrating the country is not," he said.

Pointing to the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Sharma said the RBI issued in all about 144 circulars during the demonestisation period.

"There have been job losses, demand has suffered, markets have gone down. The government's asset is its credibility but with this initiative even the banks have lost credibility. Even the credibility of RBI has gone down. The government is treating it as a government department," he noted.

The Congress leader also attacked the PM for not fulfilling any promises which he made before the formation of the government.

"When this government assumed office it showed green pastures to the people of the country. The PM spoke about various issues like security of women, smart cities among various other slogans and these have just remained slogans," Sharma said.

The PM had also said that 1.02 crore jobs would be created in the country as well as MSP for farmed would be raised, he added.

"Instead of creating jobs, there has been a loss of jobs in lakhs. Why the MSP for farmers not raised when there has been a drought for two years and farmers committing suicides in various states," Sharma said.

He added that the PM had announced to bring back black money stashed in foreign countries but has failed to do so.

"PM said Rs 1.86 lakh crore will be brought from foreign countries. Ramdev and some other Devs had given this huge figure and the PM said Rs 15 lakh will be deposited in account of each person in the country," Sharma said.

Stressing that the PM uses "forceful words" in every speech, the former minister urged him to show some "tolerance".

"The country would have achieved more with right policies and not with forceful words. The dignity of your office will be maintained if you have talked about the dignity of others," he said.

He also attacked the PM for using the earthquake jibe for Rahul Gandhi during his speech in Lok Sabha.

"It was not in good taste. The people of Uttarakhand which suffered huge losses should not be reminded of the tragedy," he said.