New notes have fuelled corruption, says Delhi CM

New Delhi: Scaling up his attack against the Centre’s demonetisation scheme on Saturday, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal again termed it as the biggest scam of “independent India.”

“It’s a Rs 8 lakh crore scam. And I’m saying this with a lot of responsibility,” he said in his Facebook live video.

He challenged the idea that demonetisation would reduce corruption and bribery. “I have worked in the Income-Tax department. I understand how the system works. This scheme is not about corruption, it is about something much larger,” Mr Kejriwal said, alleging that pushing Rs 2,000 note in circulation has increased corruption.

He also said that the new higher-value currency note are much easier for the corrupt to hoard cash and use it for paying bribes, citing news reports of bureaucrats allegedly accepting bribes in BJP-ruled states of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.

He claimed that at least Rs 8 lakh crore loans sanctioned to big corporate houses has been written off as non-performing assets (NPAs) by public sector banks. “Recently, the CAG (comptroller and auditor general) said that of these NPAs, a large chunk of money has been transferred abroad and the rest of it has been fraudulently siphoned off,” said Mr Kejriwal, who is also the Aam Aadmi Party national convener.

According to him, the State Bank of India has waived off Rs 6,000 core loans sanctioned to 63 capitalists within the last three days after the demonetisation annou-ncement on November 8. “The Prime Minister asked for 50 days’ time to eradicate black money. Ten days have elapsed today, but not even 1 paise worth black money has been recovered,” he alleged.

He said the demonetisation scheme is a “conspiracy” to ensure that people deposit all their money into banks, which will make it possible for these loans to be waived off.

“The BJP goons are chanting ‘Modi-Modi’ in queues outside banks and ATMs, we will have to set them right — this is not patriotism,” he told his supporters during the live video chat.  

“Vijay Mallya was one of these capitalists whose loan worth Rs 1,200 crore was waived off by the State Bank of India,” Mr Kejriwal alleged.

He trained his guns at Prime Minister Modi and said: “Why doesn’t Mr Modi reveal who funded his 2014 election bid? All parties must do this, whether it is the SP, BSP, etc. Ours is the only party to declare every single donor, which is why despite the fact that the government has let loose every investigative agency on us, not a single case of corruption has been found against us.”

In addition, Speaker Ram Niwas Goel met President Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday to submit the resolution passed by the Delhi Assembly during its special session on November 15.