Demonetisation a criminal financial scam: Rahul

Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Thursday called the note ban a "cruel conspiracy" and a "criminal financial scam".

"November 8th will forever go down in the history of India, as a day of infamy," said Gandhi, adding that "note ban was a planned and cruel conspiracy. This scam was a scheme to launder black money of the Prime Minister's cronies," he said.

The Congress chief said Modi's unilateral announcement two years ago brought the economy to a grinding halt and it didn't even have the "support of his own economic advisors".

"Demonetisation was a tragedy. It is unique in the history of our tragedies because it was a self-inflicted, suicidal attack that destroyed millions of lives and ruined thousands of India's small businesses. The worst hit by demonetisation were the poorest of the poor, people who were forced to queue up for days for their meagre savings," he said in a statement.

Gandhi reminded that over 120 people "died" in queues, and millions of small and medium businesses were smashed and the entire informal sector "devastated".

"From a war against counterfeit currency and terrorism, to permanently removing the scourge of black money; from increasing savings to forcing a shift to digital transactions; not a single stated objective of the government's has been met," he said, adding "all that was accomplished was a disaster".

He said demonetisation cost India over one-and-a-half million jobs and wiped out at least 1 per cent from the GDP.

"On the second anniversary of the Prime Minister's monumental blunder, the government's spin-doctors, including our incompetent Finance Minister (Arun Jaitley), have the unenviable task of defending an indefensible -- the criminal policy.

"India will discover, no matter how the government tries to hide it, that demonetisation wasn't just an ill-conceived and poorly executed economic policy, but a carefully planned, criminal financial scam," he added.

--IANS

and/prs