Note ban ‘yagna’ an uncontrolled forest fire: Congress

New Delhi: Lambasting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Congress on Sunday alleged that he sounded “apologetic” in his New Year eve speech as his 50-day “shuddhi yagna” of demonetisation has turned out be an “uncontrolled forest fire” that has claimed “several lives” and crippled the economy.

The Opposition party also claimed that the scheme of financial assistance to pregnant women, announced by Mr Modi, was actually started by the UPA.

Hitting out at the PM for calling the note ban a ‘shuddhi yagna’, senior Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan said the move is nothing short of an “uncontrolled forest fire” that has claimed several lives and hit the economy.

He said the speech gave no “hard data” on how much black money was extinguished, whether sufficient quantity of Rs 500 notes were issued and about restrictions on cooperative banks. He said the speech did not have a clarity on the legal issues raised over the note ban and compensation for deaths “due to demonetisation exercise”.

“The entire black currency available in the economy has been converted into legitimate money. Exact opposite of what the PM wanted,” the former Union minister said. He also questioned whether there was a deliberate attempt to keep Rs 500 notes out of circulation and wondered whether Mr Modi was advocating a zero-cash economy.

“This will be one of the most depressing starts of New Year in the recent memory. The Prime Minister’s speech was full of jingoistic appeal wrapped in nationalistic fervour comparing the demonetisation with external aggression,” Mr Chavan said.

Mr Chavan, who was also a minister of state in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) under the UPA, said the scheme of financial assistance to pregnant women was started by the UPA in November 2010 as a pilot project.