As Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi joined a queue before a bank to give voice to the anger of the people inconvenienced by demonetisation of high value currency notes, the Congress on Friday said there was complete financial chaos and anarchy in the country and the party will raise the matter in Parliament.
At the same time, former Commerce Minister Anand Sharma demanded that all Non-Paying Assets (NPAs) should be made public and the Government should come out with a list of top defaulters of bank loans over Rs 500 crore.
Earlier in the day, Rahul Gandhi took people by surprise when he visited the State Bank of India’s Parliament Street branch to exchange demonetised currency notes of Rs 4,000 with new ones. Rahul said that he was joining the queue as the people were suffering while exchanging their demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.
“There are no crorepatis in the queue. It’s the poor people who have been standing here in queues for several hours. Common people are facing hardship, that’s why I have come to join them. I am here to exchange my Rs 4,000 with new notes,” Rahul told the media.
Attacking the Prime Minister, Rahul said the Government should be for the poor and not for just 15-20 people. “Neither you (reporters), nor your crorepati owners, nor the Prime Minister will understand the problems faced by the people,” he said.
Many people also took selfies with Rahul. Bank staffers too were seen clicking pictures of the Gandhi scion as he stayed there for about 40 minutes.
At the AICC Press briefing, Anand Sharma asked the Prime Minister as to who gave him the right to limit the withdrawal of taxpayers’ hard-earned money.
Hitting out at the Government over the move that has resulted in hardship for people, Sharma said that the Prime Minister should understand ground realities “before the situation goes out of control”.
Sharma also questioned BJP chief Amit Shah for doing propaganda on the move as his party had opposed it in 2014 when in Opposition. “Isn’t this hypocrisyIJ When the UPA was in power, the BJP opposed organised withdrawal of currency. Has Amit Shah forgotten his own party’s wordsIJ,” he asked the BJP chief.
“Does the BJP have courage in its convictions to comment on their statement from two years agoIJ Or did they support Black Money thenIJ” he asked, releasing a copy of the BJP’s Press statement of February 2014.
He also demanded that the Government make public all NPAs and banks declare the list of big loan defaulters of over Rs 500 crore. He also urged the Government to make public the names of industrialists whose loans worth Rs 5,000 crore to Rs 60,000 crore have been rescheduled during the Modi regime.
“The Government should take stock of the situation before it goes out of control. This is a Government which is insensitive, a Government which is arrogant, which has created a myth and got carried away by its own propaganda. They have created a financial chaos and anarchy-like situation in India,” Sharma said.
The Congress leader also questioned Finance Minister Arun Jaitley over claims of counterfeit currency and quoted a reply by him in Parliament where he had stated that only 0.02 per cent of the total currency is fake.
“In August 2016, the Finance Minister said in Parliament that counterfeit currency in circulation was only 0.02 per cent of the total currency. When it comes to Rs 500 and Rs 1000 denomination, then it is even less. It is a negligible amount with regards to the total currency. The suspected counterfeit currency was Rs 400 crore as against Rs 16,46,000 crore in circulation,” he said.