On the first anniversary of demonetisation of high-value currency notes, Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati charged that the mindless act had only created problems for 125 crore people of the country while a handful of politicians and industrialists benefited.
“The day - November 8, 2016, was a bad day in the country’s history. An emergency like situation prevailed for the next two months as people had to queue up before banks to get their own money,” she said.
Reacting to demonetization, Mayawati in a statement said that the act of Narendra Modi government a year back was immature and the process was carried out without any unpreparedness.
She also suggested that the BJP should have celebrated the anniversary as ‘Notebandi Waiver Day’ rather than ‘Black Money Day’.
Alleging further that corruption in the country had only headed north after demonetization, the BSP chief said though the exercise benefited some politicians and select industrialists close to the government, it also led to increase in corruption. “Corruption in all areas increased manifold during the present BJP regime and particularly after demonetization. The recent Paradise paper leak is a glaring example of it,” she said.
The BSP chief alleged that due to the ‘arrogant approach’ of the Modi government, the country was facing an eemergency- like situation.
The Paradise Papers are a set of 13.4 million confidential electronic documents relating to off-shore investments that were leaked to a German newspaper and released in the public domain on November 5, 2017. `The silence and inertness of the BJP government in this matter of corruption will not remain a mystery any more, as the Modi government is now maintaining silence on almost every such case,” she charged.
Meanwhile, the lok Gathbandhan Party (lGP) also assailed the NDA government for massive loss of jobs in the country after demonetization in November 2016.
The party said that apprehension prevailed in the job market during the last one year for which the NDA government was fully responsible.
A party spokesman said on Wednesday that data from Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) has estimated 1.5 million job loss in the first quarter of the current fiscal which was a direct reflection of demonetization.
The spokesperson said the lGP had regularly been maintaining that the disastrous decision of the Union government would have an overall adverse impact on the country’s economy but the BJP has been misleading the people merely for political gains.
The party claimed that demonetization derailed manufacturing, agriculture, industrial and other sectors, thereby ultimately hitting job opportunities in the country. Quoting reports, the party said that employment figures of leading listed companies showed that a majority of them have seen a net decline in their employment numbers during 2016-17 so far, over that of previous years.