The Youth Congress staged a demonstration outside the Reserve Bank of India in New Delhi on Monday, claiming that the Union government’s five-year-old move to demonetise higher denomination currency notes had harmed the economy.
Srinivas B.V., the Youth Congress chief, and other workers who went outside the RBI to hold a protest were stopped and detained at the Mandir Marg police station.
Srinivas said: “Demonetisation imposed by the Prime Minister five years ago slowed down the country’s economy. The Prime Minister’s decision of demonetisation proved to be a catastrophe rather than a masterstroke. The claim of checking terrorism with demonetisation turned out to be a ‘jumla’. Demonetisation pushed the countrymen into recession.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi claimed to have eliminated fake currency notes just to justify his decision of demonetisation, the Youth Congress leader alleged.
“Demonetisation neither ended corruption, nor terrorism was contained. Demonetisation imposed by the Prime Minister has not been able to fulfil any of its targets,” the Youth Congress leader claimed.
“Modi Ji and BJP had said that demonetisation would end black marketing and the country would develop, but according to the latest data, India’s GDP is at the lowest rank, unemployment is highest and poverty is prevalent.
“BJP has pushed the country into darkness. All the big and small businessmen of the country have been impacted but the most affected lot is the middle and poor class.” Srinivas said.
Demonetisation, according to the Youth Congress, was a fight against the poor and regular folks, not against black money.
Demonetisation failed to achieve its goal, and the Prime Minister should apologise to his countrymen for the failure, it said.
(With IANS inputs)