Demonetisation: Is any big industrialist standing in queue, asks Rahul Gandhi

'You are being made to stand in queues. Your money will be given to select 15-20 industrialists,' Gandhi said

Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over demonetisation and questioned whether any of the big industrialist is standing in the line to either deposit/withdraw notes or exchanges old notes of high denomination.

There have been long queues outside banks, ATMs since November 10 after Modi announced demonetisation of Rs 1000 and Rs 500 notes with effect from Novermber 8 midnight, making these notes invalid in a major assault on black money, fake currency and corruption.

"You are being made to stand in queues. Your money will be given to select 15-20 industrialists. You all know their names. The masses in India are standing in queue. Do you see any rich person, a big industrialist standing in queue," Gandhi said.

Accusing the Modi government of protecting black money holders, Gandhi said, "Those who are real black marketeers, those who have Rs 10-20000 crore, those who go with Modi in planes, action should be taken against them."

Gandhi was today granted bail in RSS defamation case by a Bhiwandi court.

"I have come to the court to fight for Mahatma Gandhiji's ideology. On one hand is ideology of freedom and on other is ideology of slavery. Those I am fighting against want to bend India so they can rule country," Gandhi said.

Flaying the Centre for the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes, Gandhi said on Tuesday that "it was based on one person's thinking and could turn out be a mega scam".

"The big black money players have been allowed to go scot-free by the Prime Minister... People like (Vijay) Mallya and Lalit Modi are sitting abroad," Gandhi said.

On Prime Minister Narendra Modi's speeches on this issue, Gandhi sarcastically said: "A couple of days back he was laughing and the next day he was crying... He should decide what he wants to do."