Cong's new twist: Will money deposited by aam aadmi be used to wipe out bad loans of industrialists?

Sibal claimed that the RBI would transfer the money to the government which would recapitalise the banks and would clear their balance sheets

Congress on Tuesday sought to give a new twist to demonetisation of Rs 500/1000 currency notes expressing apprehensions that the money received from people would be utilised to recapitalise the banks and wipe out Rs six lakh crore Non-Performing Assets of big industrialists.

"The Non-Performing Assets (NPAs) are to the tune of Rs six lakh crore. Do they want to utilise the money deposited by people in banks to wipe out the NPAs of industrialists who have played fraud on the country?" party spokesman Kapil Sibal said at the AICC briefing.

He claimed that the RBI would transfer the money to the government which would recapitalise the banks and would clear their balance sheets and the "whole thing has nothing to do with black money and is a compromise on black money and with NPAs".

On the eve of the winter session of Parliament, the party stepped up its attack on the government by arguing that the demonetisation move would have an "adverse effect" on the country's GDP due to "freezing" of 86 per cent of banknotes in value terms.

"This measure will have an adverse effect on the GDP. Rs 16 lakh crore of currency, out of which 86 per cent was frozen. But, what do they care about the people?" he asked.

Seeking to expose the claims of the BJP-led dispensation on the issue of black money, he wondered as to why Prime Minister Narendra Modi was not divulging the names of those holding black money as sought by the Supreme Court.

"Where is the black money? As far as the black money is concerned, Modiji is yet to give the names to the Supreme Court," Sibal said, adding that it was hard to trust the Modi dispensation which could even declare invalid the newly released Rs 2000 currency notes.

He said Congress was opposed to putting a mark on a finger of people, who go to bank to exchange now-defunct notes, with indelible ink and insisted that the move meant the government is preventing people from replacing their own money.

Singling out the Prime Minister for attack, Sibal asked why the people should believe him on the issue of black money when he had "lied" about it earlier.

He also targeted the Prime Minister in the wake of his 97-year-old mother Hiraba visiting a bank at her village in Gandhinagar to exchange defunct currency notes, saying it does not do any credit to the son.

"I am very sad. No good son ever wants that his 97-year-old mother has to (face such a situation) and they boast of a 56-inch-chest," Sibal said.