New Delhi: Hitting back at Congress, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said post demonetisation the narrative now is how much money has come back into the system as against how much was lost in scams like coal and 2G.
Addressing a meeting on ‘Digidhan Mela’, he also had a dig at Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram on his comment that demonetisation has produced “only a mouse” in terms of black money after digging a mountain, saying finding a “mouse” is needed as it consumes the wealth of poor.
“Three years ago, the dominant theme in the news was how much money was lost in scams. Now it’s about what is coming back. This is the difference,” Modi said.
He said that it is the same people and the country but now “they talk about what has come”.
The previous UPA regime was marred by a host of scams like coal allocation and 2G spectrum sale, which allegedly resulted in huge loss to the exchequer. The losses were flagged by the CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General) in its reports.
Modi said that one politician had described demonetisation drive as “khoda pahad nikli chuhiya (dug mountain and found). I want to take out that mouse as it is eating the wealth of the poor…We are working on that at fast pace”.
The Prime Minister further said that it is because of the hard work of the people that 86 per cent of the currency was being replaced to deal with the menace of corruption and black money.
“This is not a normal power of the people. This power will take the country forward,” Modi said adding poor people have the right on the country’s resources and wealth.
He said the last government fought the election on the promise of giving more cylinders, while his government has asked people to surrender their LPG subsidies so that it could be given to poor mothers.
PTI