Rahul Gandhi terms demonetisation decision as “foolish”

New Delhi: Rahul Gandhi today termed as “foolish” the demonetisation decision as opposition parties stepped up their attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the move, with Congress likening him to Roman emperor Nero, who fiddled while Rome burnt.

On a day when opposition parties observed completion of one month of demonetisation as “Black Day”, Congress said the move was implemented without any application of mind as it has put the public to “great hardships”.

“There is a saying, Nero fiddled while Rome burned. As the story goes, in the time of a crisis, the Roman Emperor was busy playing the violin. He was both whimsical and ineffectual when Rome needed him the most.

“It has been a month since that fateful day when Modi decided that 86 per cent of the cash in the economy was illegal. Since then, the entire nation has been put through great hardships, whose cost in terms of human lives has been significant”, the Congress said.

The Congress vice president, who led the protest outside Mahatma Gandhi’s statue this morning said, “This is not a bold decision, it is a foolish decision which has been taken without any due consideration. It has devastated the poor, farmers and daily wage workers.”

Gandhi also said, “Demonetisation – a goalless draw” and that “PayTM means Pay To Modi, i.e a few people should get maximum benefit from every single transaction”.

He said the Prime Minister is changing his narrative on Demonetisation. “PM is running from one thing to another: black money to counterfeit to cashless. He jumped from black money to terrorism to counterfeit currency and now to cashless economy. We won’t let him run inside the House.”

Gandhi said,”We want to have a discussion (in Parliament).

We want a vote (in Parliament). The government doesn’t.”

Congress party senior spokesperson Ghulam Nabi Azad said, “There was no application of mind. It was just merely an announcement and that too an announcement without thinking and without visualising what type of disaster ultimately it will lead to.”

Azad said it has been one month since Modi announced his demonetisation scheme

“In the last month we have seen that this scheme as failed and has been a total disaster. We are all against Black Money. But, this was an announcement without thinking nor visualising the disaster it would make,” he said.

The Congress leader claimed reports have already started coming that shows that lakhs of jobs are being lost as 86 pc of the salaries paid in India are in cash.

“There was selective leakage of the info to BJP leaders.

BJP leaders have been purchasing land just prior to Demonetisation.

“This measure has not stopped terrorism. Reports have shown that terrorists captured had new currency,” he said.

–PTI