Rahul Gandhi does not understand note ban, waiting for his expert views: Govt

New Delhi: Hitting back at Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi for describing demonetisation as an impromptu experiment, Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday said he has neither understood the importance of the decision nor done his homework.

She wondered how can Prime Minister Narendra Modi be blamed for taking an impromptu decision and at the same time leaking the information to others.

"I am not sure if he (Gandhi) has really looked into what is meant by the exercise the government has done ...So this kind of remark saying that it is impromptu, itself shows that not much home work has been done by the Congress Vice- President," she told PTI in an interview.

Slamming Rahul Gandhi, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the government is eager to hear his "scholarly" arguments on demonetisation as it wants to know the Congress vice president's stand on the issue of black money.

Speaking to reporters in New Delhi, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad also cited Congress' poor show in by-poll results, which were announced on Tuesday, to attack its vice president.

Taking a dig at the opposition parties' protest in the morning, Prasad said instead of forming human chain outside the Parliament they should produce a "chain of speakers" inside and start a debate as the government has been ready for a discussion from the first day of the Winter Session.

"The government is very keen to hear Rahul Gandhi's scholarly arguments. Rajya Sabha witnessed a debate on November 17 and Congress leaders like Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma besides BSP's Mayawati spoke. What happened now that they are running away from a debate. They realise that the country is not appreciating their arguments," he said.

Asking Gandhi to show pragmatism, Prasad said the Congress leader should consider where his party is heading under him.

In the by-polls, Congress did not get enough votes in some seats to save its deposit, he said.

Referring to Gandhi's demand that Prime Minister Narendra Modi be present in Parliament during the debate, he said as somebody coming from a family whose members have been in power for 50 years he should know how government is run.
"At times it is good to be pragmatic," the Law Minister said.

Sitharaman said that the move to withdraw high denomination currency helps in making the economy "cleaner" and make transactions more formal and transparent.

"There are so many dimensions to it. It is a very big step of this nature," she added.

The minister said that had there been no preparations, then how Rs 2,000 note came into the market a day after the announcement of the demonetisation.

"It was available in many parts, not adequately I agree. Could that have happened if there was no preparations by the government," she said, adding this was not an impromptu or a knee-jerk decision.

"They are making all kinds of statements but there is nothing substantial," she said.

Gandhi has described the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes as the world's "biggest impromptu financial experiment".

"Prime Minister can give lectures to pop concert where 'naach gaana' is going on. 200 MPs are saying they want to tell the nation why he took this decision. PM does not want to come to Parliament. Why is PM afraid of going inside? He is obviously anxious about something," Gandhi said.

Opposition MPs including those of Congress, SP, BSP, TMC, DMK, CPI, CPI(M) among others were outside Parliament near Gandhi Statue protesting the demonetisation.