New Delhi: Waving Rs 500 currency notes allegedly having different sizes, designs and features, the Congress on Tuesday accused the BJP-led NDA government of printing two different notes of Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 post-demonetisation, one for the government and the other for the ruling party, and termed it the “biggest scam of the century”. The issue rocked Parliament as the Rajya Sabha witnessed six adjournments, with Congress members shouting slogans like “farzi noton ki sarkar nahin chalegi”, before the House was adjourned for the day. Interestingly, the JD(U)’s Sharad Yadav, whose party is now with the NDA, also joined the Congress in demanding an explanation from the government on the issue while Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said the Narendra Modi government had no right to remain in power for even five minutes. The Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamul Congress also joined the Congress members in raising the issue. The Samajwadi Party staged a walkout in support, while the Congress vowed it would keep flagging the issue in Parliament until the government comes out with an explanation.
“We have discovered why this government took a decision on demonetisation (of old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes in November last year) ... these (waving a photocopy of Rs 500 notes) have different sizes, different designs and different features ... this is misuse of power ... the Prime Minister should explain in Parliament how it happened,” said the Congress’ Kapil Sibal, who raised the issue on a point of order. Congress members were then seen passing each other the Rs 500 notes.
Deputy chairman P.J. Kurien said even if there were two types of notes, it could not be raised as a point of order. “You raise the issue in a different form,” he said.
The Congress claimed never before has the “credibility of the currency in circulation been challenged like this as today”.
Leader of the House and finance minister Arun Jaitley hit back at the Opposition party, saying it had been “raising frivolous issues every day in Zero Hour without giving notice so that they can’t be verified”.
Mr Jaitley said: “There are rules under which you give notice. You start raising issues with regard to the currency of the country in this manner, and such irresponsible statements are made... There is a misuse of Zero Hour going on and it should not be permitted at all.”
The Chair also ruled that the issue raised was not a point of order, and said if the members want to raise it they needed to submit a notice. Law minister Ravishankar Prasad said the Opposition members should explain from where have they had got the currency notes. MoS parliamentary affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said the Congress members were creating confusion as demonetisation had hit corrupt people hard, and said any attempt to protect corrupt people would not succeed.
TMC MP Derek O’Brien also offered to submit the notes to Mr Jaitley for scrutiny and walked up to him to show him the differences in the notes, but did not leave them with the finance minister. Mr Jaitley said there was no provision in the rules that anyone could “flash any paper and say it was a point of order”.
Later, addressing the media outside Parliament, the Congress alleged two different kinds of Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 notes were printed after the demonetisation “which jeopardises the credibility of Indian currency”. Mr Sibal alleged the demonetisation move had “failed” to achieve its stated objectives of combating black money, corruption, counterfeit currency and terrorism.
