Previous demonetisations passed through ordinance, PM Modi made 'illegal' move: Congress

The Congress on Wednesday accused the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government of committing gross illegality by launching the demonetisation drive.

Congress leader Manish Tewari alleged that the Centre has blatantly ignored the law while banning high denomination notes.

Asserting that the previous two demonetisations were done through an ordinance following the due course of law Tewari questioned the Prime Minister that how could he implement currency swap through an executive action.

"How legal is it? The Prime Minister needs to answer whether without amending the RBI act is it not illegal to introduce a rupees 2000 note. The next thing which Prime Minister needs to answer is that where does he derive the authority in law to impose these arbitrary limits on withdrawals. He also needs to answer as to whether legal tender currency in the hand of people is property and can property be taken away by executive action?," said Tewari.

Reiterating that the Prime Minister has made a massively illegal move, Tewari further said that the entire demonetarisation seems to be a massive cover-up.

"God alone knows what was driving the Prime Minister but it was certainly not his quest for cleansing the system because if he wanted to cleanse the system, what has prevented him from investigating the Sahara dairies and the Birla diaries," he added.

Addressing the BJP Parliamentary Party meeting yesterday, Prime Minister Modi said the demonetisation of high value currency is just the beginning of his government's deep and continuous struggle against black money.

Later in the day, attacking political rivals for criticising the government's demonetisation move, Prime Minister Modi said, that there will be no compromise on the issues of corruption and black money.

Speaking during the release of a book on the late veteran BJP leader and former Governor of Goa and Sikkim Kedarnath Sahni, the Prime Minister lamented that moral values have degraded to such an extent that some people in public life are brazenly supporting corruption and black money.