Opposition parties yesterday said the central government’s move to demonetise Rs500 and Rs1,000 currency notes had caused enormous hardship to people, with the Aam Aadmi Party and Trinamool Congress demanding its rollback.
Delhi Chief Minister and AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal said demonetisation will not bring black money into the banking system but only result in it changing hands. West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool supremo Mamata Banerjee termed it a hasty decision while her Uttar Pradesh counterpart Akhilesh Yadav said it was a very badly executed move.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who addressed a press conference in the national capital on yesterday, said some reactions of political parties were “irresponsible” and some of them were “feeling the pain.”
Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi appealed to his party workers to help common people as they stood in serpentine queues outside banks to get currency notes exchanged.
Congress leader and former finance minister P Chidambaram said the move was not demonetisation but “old notes for new” and a Central Board of Direct Taxes report had advised against it.
The CBDT had advised the government to avoid issuing Rs2,000 currency notes, saying it would bring more harm to the public than benefit.
Kejriwal alleged that those close to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were already aware of the government’s move and had taken care of their black money before Tuesday night’s announcement.
Demanding withdrawal of the decision, Kejriwal said the economy will collapse in the coming days if the decision was not withdrawn.