Congress demands referendum on demonetisation decision

Claiming demonetisation has turned out to be the biggest disaster, the Congress's Kerala unit on Friday has demanded Prime Minister Narendra Modi hold a referendum on the move.

"We demand that the PM announce a referendum on his demonetisation programme. He promised that in 50 days, things will be set right, but today everything has gone haywire except for Modi, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and the corporates. The best Modi can to do is to quit," Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala told reporters here.

He said that since demonetisation began, the biggest casualty was the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), whose credibility has completely eroded.

"Since this insensible programme began, the RBI has changed its decisions 60 times and issued 135 circulars. Modi has to apologise to the nation for this huge wrong that he foolishly went about, promising that black money would be wiped out.

"By now of the 15.44 lakh crore currency that was withdrawn, 13.24 lakh crore have returned and with time still left, more is expected to be deposited," said Chennithala.

"At the end of the day, while no black money was detected, the woes of the people on account of this increased dramatically. The concept of cashless economy is all humbug as in India, even the banking proliferation is just above 50 per cent," he added.

He said on January 11, the top Congress leaders from all over the country are meeting in Delhi to decide the future course of action to take on Modi and his government.

--IANS

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