lambasting the demonetisation move of the Union Government, Congress leader and former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda alleged that the money deposited in banks was being used by the Bharatiya Janata Party to get a Rs six lakh crore loan waiver for its industrialist “friends”. Further alleging that the BJP had Rs 987 crore in black money, he said that reported land purchases by the BJP in various states a few days prior to the demonetisation was announced, gives grounds to consider the step as one aimed at securing ulterior political gain for itself and gains for its “industrialist friends”. Regarding the Congress-led State Government in Uttarakhand, he expressed confidence that the party would be re-elected to form its government in the state.
Addressing the media here at the Congress Bhawan on Tuesday, the former chief minister of Haryana criticised the demonetisation carried out by the Union Government, stressing that it had hit hard, the bulk of the Indian work force which depends on hard cash. He said, “People are standing in queues at banks and struggling to withdraw their own money while lakhs and crores of rupees are being discovered from BJP netas. The former prime minister and economist Manmohan Singh had said correctly in the parliament when he stated that the government which had come to office on the electoral plank of providing two crore job opportunities made one majorly flawed decision of demonetisation which has resulted in more than two crore persons being rendered without jobs in the period of one month,” he said. Futher criticising the BJP for failing to meet any of the major promises and claims it had made during the parliamentary elections, Hooda said that the demonetisation was especially hard on the general masses “in a nation where about 60 crore people do not have access to banks”. He said, “The farmers were worse hit by the demonetisation because they were not able to make timely purchase of seeds, fertilisers and pesticides which affecting the crop sowing, which in turn will have an impact on the quantity of total wheat production of the nation this time. The labourers, farmers, poor and middle class segments of society are hard hit by the demonetisation. It has hassled labourers in the unorganised sector and also affected the medium and small business persons. While campaigning for the parliamentary elections, the present prime minister Narendra Modi and BJP had made various promises to the public including employment generation. Having failed to generate the promised employment and other development promised, the Modi government went for demonetisation without proper preparation in order to divert the focus of the public from its failure to execute its earlier promises,” alleged Hooda. On being asked by the media about the situation in Uttarakhand, Hooda opined that “everyone is happy with the Congress-led State Government”. “I am confident that the people will re-elect the Congress government under the leadership of chief minister Harish Rawat in the coming assembly elections,” he added.
The Uttarakhand Pradesh Congress Committee president Kishore Upadhyay left the Press conference before its conclusion to attend to another important patter matter while other PCC office bearers including its chief spokesman Mathura Datt Joshi among others were present on the occasion.