Note ban a 'watershed moment':Jaitley; a 'reckless step', says

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today called demonetisation a "watershed moment" while former premier Manmohan Singh said it was a "reckless step", as party rivals clashed on the eve of its first anniversary to be observed as 'anti-black money' day by the BJP and 'black day' by Congress.
Lending weight to the fresh opposition attack on the Modi government over note ban, West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee alleged that the measure was a "big scam" that was announced to help vested interests convert black money into white money.
Singh and Jaitley were locked in a fresh war of words after the Congress veteran said he is repeating what he said earlier that demonetisation was an "organised loot and legalised plunder."

Jaitley hit back at the former prime minister, insisting that demonetisation was an "ethical drive and a moral step" that made corruption difficult. He said the "loot" is what happened in 2G scam, commonwealth games and allocation of coal blocks, whereas demonetisation was an economic exercise based on ethical and moral rationales.
"An anti-black money drive is (an) ethical drive, a moral step. And what is moraly and ethically correct has to be politically correct," the minister said at a BJP news conference in Delhi, targeting Singh.
"November 8, 2016 would be remembered as a watershed moment in the history of Indian economy," he said earlier in a 1,843 word blog, 'A Year After Demonetisation', adding the date "signifies the resolve of this Government to cure the country from 'dreaded disease of black money'."

In the Facebook post, Jaitley said the demonetisation decision has led to a larger formal economy, cleaner economy and bigger tax base, asserting that the government strongly stands by its decision a year after it made the "historic" announcement.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on November 8 last year announced the demonetisation of old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes in a bid to combat corruption, black money, terrorism and fake currency.
While the BJP has announced "anti-black money" day tomorrow with its leaders fanning out across the country to highlight the measure's "successes", the Congress and other opposition parties has sought to corner the government by observing "black day" in protest against the note ban and "unparallelled damage" it caused to the country and the economy.

At an interactive session with businessmen and traders organised by the Congress in Ahmedabad in poll-bound Gujarat, Singh called note ban a "reckless step" and a "disastrous policy" which failed to achieve its stated objectives.
Singh said "demonetisation was clearly not the way to end the menace of tax evasion and black money."
"Demonetisation has proved to be a mere blister to reap political dividends while the real offenders have escaped. I repeat, this was an organised loot and legalised plunder," he added.
At a BJP press conference in Delhi, Jaitley said the BJP has a different perspective than the Congress on the issue of ethics as its priority is to serve the nation while for the opposition party it is about service to the family.

Banerjee claimed that demonetisation neither brought back black money stashed abroad nor it could combat terrorism or help the country develop.
"In all practical sense, it yielded a big, big zero," she said.
"Demonetisation is a big scam. I repeat, demonetisation is a big scam. If a thorough investigation is conducted, this will be proved," the chief minister alleged in a Facebook post.
"Demonetisation was not to combat black money. It was only to convert black money into white money for vested interests of political party in power (sic)," she alleged.