The Aam Aadmi Party termed the Centre's decision to demonetise high-value notes a "Tughlaqi diktat" on Wednesday. Saying the move was not going to aid the battle against black money and have instead unleashed "mayhem" on the masses, senior AAP leader Sanjay Singh noted that the proposed Rs2,000 currency notes — to be put in circulation soon as a replacement — will give a push to the black money market.
Earlier in the day, Finance Secretary Ashok lavasa said the new hard-to-fake Rs500 and Rs2,000 currency notes will be available at bank ATMs when they start operating again from Friday. While addressing a Press conference at AAP party headquarters, Singh also wondered if big businessmen and "BJP leaders in Uttar Pradesh" were informed in advance about the decision, considering the State is going to polls next year.
"This overnight decision is nothing but Tughlaki diktat. How are you going to curb black money when you are allowing people to have bigger currency notes to carry out illegal transactions," Singh said. The indication that the party was going to oppose the move came on Tuesday night when Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal shared his Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee's tweet, where she demanded that the decision be rolled back.
"Earlier, they (terrorists) were making fake notes of Rs500 and 1,000, now you are giving them an option of making fake notes of Rs2,000. How does it solve the problemIJ" Singh asked, dismissing the arguments of checking terrorism and drug trafficking through demonetisation as a "joke". The AAP leader also criticised BJP for hailing the decision as "surgical strike on black money" saying it has done nothing more than creating mayhem for 1.25 crore citizens of this country wherein a common man is hassled for basic day-to-day needs. "Go to petrol pump, toll plaza, hospital... They all have choked," he said. AAP also lashed out at the Centre for not taking actions against liquor baron Vijay Mallaya and tainted former IPl czar lalit Modi.