Demonetisation was loot, plunder', claims Manmohan Singh

New Delhi/Ahmedabad: The Congress fielded former Prime Minister and economist Manmohan Singh to take on the ruling NDA on the eve of the first anniversary of demonetisation. As Dr Singh attacked the government over the “disastrous” and “reckless” decision, saying it had lowered the growth rate and hit employment generation, finance minister Arun Jaitely moved in to quickly defend the “historic” move, claiming that demonetisation has met its objective of reducing cash in the economy and dealing a body blow to black money.

The Opposition parties, meanwhile, plan to hit the streets on Wednesday to protest against demonetisation. Though almost all Opposition parties plan to join in the protest, a decision has been taken to hold agitations on separate platforms. The BJP, on the other hand, will counter the move by celebrating the first anniversary of the financial decision as “anti-black money”.

The Congress has made the twin issues of demonetisation and GST as a poll plank in Gujarat, which goes to polls on December 9 and 14, and hence the decision to hold Dr Singh’s press conference and interaction with businessmen in Ahmedabad.

At the media interaction, Dr Singh belted out some hard economic facts and said that for growth to now measure up to the 10-year average of the United Progressive Alliance government, led by him, the economy will have to grow at 10.6 per cent in the NDA’s fifth year in power.

The former PM said though he would be happy if this happens, he did not think it can. He also attacked the government over demonetisation and the way GST was implemented.

Dr Singh said that “demonetisation was clearly not the way to end the menace of tax evasion and black money”. He added: “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.”

It is worrying that growth has been falling for several quarters, sliding to 5.7 per cent in the first quarter of 2017-18, he said.

Attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Dr Singh said that Mr Modi tends to exaggerate what he will do in the future. “He (the Prime Minister) was recently quoted in the press as saying that India will become a developed country by 2022. I would be the happiest person in the world if he can deliver that. But is he really aware of what it implies?”

He also questioned Mr Modi’s bullet train project, calling it “an exercise in vanity”, and condemned attempts to label as anti-national all voices of dissent on the project.

The former PM said: “By questioning bullet trains, does one become anti-development? Does questioning GST and demonetisation make one a tax evader?”

Taking on Dr Singh for his criticism, Mr Jaitley described demonetisation decision as an “economic exercise which had an ethical and a moral rationale behind it”. He said “organised loot” was the CWG scam, 2G scam and irregularties in allocation of coal blocks under the UPA government as he hit back at the Congress, saying: “The Congress and the BJP have a different viewpoint on what is ethical”, as the former’s primary objective is to serve the family while for the latter, it is to serve the nation.

He said the note ban decision led to a larger formal economy, cleaner economy and bigger tax base and asserted that the government strongly stands by its decision a year after it made the “historic” announcement, marking an “watershed moment” for the economy.

Mr Jaitley also asked the former PM to compare pre-2014 and post-2014 reputation of the Indian economy. He also listed out measures taken by the government to curb black money and corruption and said Mr Modi had undertaken a transformation of economy with “structural reforms”.

“Anti-black money drive is an ethical drive. Anti-black money step is a moral step. What is ethically and morally correct has to be politically correct,” he said. Mr Jaitley said that after coming to power, the BJP believed that it was most urgent to “shake up” the status quo.

Excessive cash transaction was leading to tax evasion and honest tax payers suffered “double whammy” as they ended up paying taxes for evaders too, he added.

He said that while demonetisation is not a solution to all problems, it has changed the agenda, ushering in a less-cash economy, increasing numbers of tax assesses and squeezing terror funding. Data mining has led to identification of 1.8 million bank account holders with disproportionate income, he said.

Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad joined Mr Jaitley in attacking Dr Singh for terming demonetisation as “organised loot”. “The former Prime Minister seems to be reading scripts written by someone else, just like Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi,” said Mr Prasad. “Manmohan Singhji has said that note ban was a dacoity. This is not Manmohan Singhji’s language,” he added.

Almost all Opposition parties including the Congress, TMC and the Left plan to hold rallies across the country to protest demonetisation on Wednesday.

Trinamul Congress chief and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee also hit out at the government, saying demonetisation was a big scam.