No question of roll back, says Jaitley

Unfazed by combined opposition attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in and outside Parliament, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday ruled out roll back of demonetisation saying the government is firm on cleansing politics and economy of the country.

Rejecting the demand of political parties like Aam Admi Party and Trinamool Congress, he said, “whatever AAP and Trinamool Congress said about the roll back, there is no question of that. It is a clear decision of the Prime Minister and government to cleanse politics and economy of the country.

We will stick to it (demonetisation)”. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal along with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday organised a protest in front of RBI office in the national capital to oppose the decision of the government to withdraw Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes. They are demanded withdrawal of the demonetisation as it is causing hardship to common man. 

The issue of demonetisation also rocked Parliament leading to repeated adjournments of the Rajya Sabha as well as the Lok Sabha. On opposition’s demand for reply by Modi on demonetisation issue in Parliament, Jaitley said: “Government has a collective responsibility. And therefore it is the prerogative of the government on who should reply to a debate.

“Bulk of the debate has already taken place. I have attended the debate. And the government will decided who will reply to the debate. If the government thinks it is necessary at appropriate time for the prime Minister to intervene, we will consider it at that stage. But it is not necessary that there is an intervention (by Prime Minister) in every debate.”