Opposition to mark anniversary of note ban as ‘Black Day’

New Delhi: Opposition leaders on Tuesday declared that they will observe November 8, the first anniversary of demonetisation, as “Black Day” across the country.

Stepping up his attack against the government over GST, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday took the Gabbar Singh analogy further by referencing the Bollywood villain’s dialogue to say it was a tax that coveted people’s earnings.

“Congress GST is Genuine Simple Tax while Modiji’s GST is Gabbar Singh Tax that is give me your earnings,” Mr Gandhi tweeted.

Addressing a press conference, Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad said, “One can say this is a scam of the century. Eighteen political parties have decided to hold protests in every state in their capacity against the government’s decision, which caused hardship to the people. Never ever in the world people have died because of a government policy.” Sharad Yadav of the breakaway faction of the JD(U) and Trinamul Congress leader Derek O’Brien were also present at the press conference along with Mr Azad.

“We will observe it as Kalo Dibas, ‘Black Day’ in Bengali. History of modern India will remember the ‘scam’ which took place on November 8. We had raised a number of questions and our doubts regarding the policy, but the government could not answer or erase our doubts,” Mr O’Brien said.

Reacting sharply to the utterances of Mr Gandhi, finance minister Arun Jaitley said that those who are used to monumental scams in 2G spectrum and coal allocation will have objections to legitimate tax. He also chided the Opposition parties’ decision to observing November 8 as a “Black Day”, saying the move displays their faith in cash economy.

Addressing a press meet on the state of the economy Mr Jaitley said, “The people who had got used to 2G (telecom) and coal block (allocation) scams, will have objections to legitimate tax”