Note ban was an attack on India's poor, farmers and small businessmen: Rahul

Continuing his criticism of the Central government's economic policies, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi government’s demonetisation move was actually an attack on “India’s poor, farmers, labour and small businessmen”. "One of the first instances of PM Modi playing with the trust of a billion Indians came with the demonetisation move. Overnight, he pushed Indians and their economy into a dark abyss from which they have not risen up even today. Modi's 'cash-free' India is actually a 'worker-farmer-small businessman' free India. The dice that was thrown on November 8, 2016 had a terrible result on August 31, 2020," Rahul Gandhi said in a video message released on Twitter. 

Gandhi went on to state that 'notebandi' was also an attack on India’s unorganised economy. "Demonetisation was an excruciating exercise that drew money out of the pockets of India’s poor and filled the pockets of India’s rich. It was a sacrifice only the common Indian had to make," the Congress leader said in the second part of his video series on Indian economy. 

On November 8, 2016, PM Modi had announced that Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 will no longer be valid as the government looked to crack down on black money. It also gave a push to digital payments and a cashless economy. 

Rahul Gandhi also asked if the move helped in curbing black money, which was the chief agenda behind invalidating Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency. He also rhetorically questioned what purpose did the move serve for India’s most poor citizens. Citing a report from Azim Premji University, the 50-year-old Congressman said that between 2016-2018, around 50 lakh people lost their jobs. “So who benefitted? India’s biggest billionaires benefited. How? The government used people’s money to clear the loans of big defaulters” he asked.  The government cleared the loans of around 50 industrialists which totalled to Rs 68,607 crore, he said.

Rahul Gandhi has been repeatedly targeting the Narendra Modi government over the issues of economic distress, China incursion and pandemic management for the past few weeks. 

"GDP -23.9. The ruining of the country's economy began with demonetisation. Since then, the government introduced one erroneous policy after another," Rahul Gandhi had tweeted a day after the growth figures for the last quarter were published on Monday. The GDP contraction in the April-June quarter was the worst slump India's economy suffered on record.