Youth Congress members protest outside RBI office against demonetisation

Youth Congress members accompanied by senior party leaders Friday staged a protest against demonetisation outside the RBI office here and were

detained by police.

The security forces forcibly took the protestors to police station in a bus.

"Around 70-80 Congress protesters, including Ashok Gehlot, Anand Sharma and Bhupinder Singh Hooda have been detained," police said.

The protesters wore masks and shouted slogans against the BJP-led government.

Amrish Ranjan Pandey, national spokesperson of the Youth Congress, said the protest was aimed at "highlighting the miseries of the nation since the last two years under the Modi regime".

"It is a protest against the 'failed' demonetisation of the Modi government wherein common people suffered its grave consequences," he said.

 

On November 8, 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced that Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 denomination bank notes would cease to exist as legal tenders.

The withdrawal of the notes had led to a liquidity crunch and people stood in serpentine queues outside banks and ATMs to exchange old notes.

The opposition parties have criticised the exercise as "ill-advised" and "disastrous" for the country, but the government has maintained that the move helped increase the tax base and allowed greater formalisation of the economy.