Opposition attacks Modi government over demonetisation, releases videotape

The opposition parties on Tuesday fired a fresh salvo at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and ruling Bharatiya Janata Party over demonetisation during a press conference at Constitutional Club in New Delhi.

The opposition parties played a videotape at the press conference purportedly showed an alleged BJP worker in Ahmedabad exchanging the banned notes with the new denominations in lieu of a sum.

Congress leader Kapil Sibal said the tape exposed the alleged involvement of the BJP in demonetization and that it was done to benefit the saffron party. He also accused the Narendra Modi-led BJP government at the Centre of swindling public money, terming it 'treason'. Sibal also accused the government of misusing government machinery, including police and banks to work in favour of the BJP.

Sibal took a dig at PM Modi for adding 'chowkidar' as a prefix to his name. "After watching this video clip, the country has to decide who is chor (thief) and who is chowkidar (guard)? Who is a patriot and who is an anti-national?" the Congress leader said.

The purported tape cited by Kapil Sibal in his press conference was hosted by a website tnn.world. A reverse look up of the domain using online tools like 'Go Daddy' and 'Whois,' which reveal owners of websites, showed that the website mentioned by Sibal was registered in the United Kingdom.

"Our industries have suffered heavy losses. Our country has to backtrack on the economic path, and crores of Indian youth had to lose jobs due to demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes on November 8, 2016," senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Ghulam Nabi Azad said at the press conference.

The leaders of the opposition parties present at the press conference included Sharad Yadav from Loktantrik Janata Dal, Hemant Soren of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, Manoj Jha from Rashtriya Janata Dal, Ahmed Patel, Mallikarjun Kharge from the Congress.