\'PM proved right: Will Congress apologise?\'

NEW DELHI: Asserting that the Supreme Court’s order upholding the government’s demonetisation exercise was a validation that the move was done to check fake currency, terror funding, money laundering and black money, among other things, the BJP on Monday asked if Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will tender an apology for his campaign against the note ban after the apex court ruling said the note ban policy was well-intentioned.

Claiming that note-ban resulted in breaking the backbone of terrorism as terror funding was integral to terrorism, senior BJP leader and former law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad also said the exercise boosted income tax and had cleansed the economy. “It is a historic decision and is in the national interest. The Supreme Court has held a decision taken in the national interest valid. Will Rahul Gandhi now say sorry for his campaign against demonetisation? He spoke against it even abroad,” said the senior BJP leader.

Hitting out at Congress leaders, especially former Union finance minister P. Chidambaram, for highlighting the minority judgment, Mr Prasad said the Opposition party was  ignoring with impunity the majority verdict to make incharitable and scandalous statements. He added that the dissenting judge also said the policy was well-intentioned.

The BJP leader said India also saw a “bumper harvest of digital transactions”, thus bringing in more transparency, and added that India had become a global leader in digital payments, which was boosted after demonetisation. Noting that India notched up over 730 crore digital transactions worth over Rs 12 lakh crores in October this year alone, the former minister said 2.38 lakh shell companies were caught and involvement of the informal sector in the economy had decreased from 52 per cent to 20 per cent. The BJP leader alleged that the Congress “protected and promoted” the informal economy.

The five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Justice S.A. Nazeer, had said there has to be great restraint in matters of economic policy and the court cannot supplant the wisdom of the executive by a judicial review of its decision.

Mr Prasad said it was a “very important” decision and the court had noted that the government has a right to take a policy decision and rejected the argument that appropriate consultation with the Reserve Bank of India was not done, the BJP leader said.

“In sum and substance, the apex court looked at the entire decision-making exercise and found the process fair and reasonable,” he said, hitting out at the Opposition party for raising a “big storm” against the demonetisation.

He said the BJP government under Prime Minister Modi has been firm in espousing his commitment to the welfare of the poor, and demonetisation was designed to serve their interests as well.