Note ban wounds are still visible, says Opposition

New Delhi: The Congress on Thursday launched a multi-pronged attack on the Modi government over demonetisation, with former prime minister Manmohan Singh saying the “scars and wounds” it caused are getting more visible with time and party chief Rahul Gandhi describing the measure as a carefully planned “criminal financial scam”.

In a scathing assessment of the demonetisation exercise, Dr Singh said the decision’s second anniversary on Thursday is a day to remember how “economic misadventures” can roil the nation.

In a statement, he asked the government not to resort to further unorthodox, short-term economic measures that can cause any more uncertainty in the economy.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi also came out with a statement sharply criticising demonetisation and describing it as a “tragedy” that destroyed millions of lives.

In a tweet, he also alleged that demonetisation was a planned “brutal conspiracy” and a “shrewd scheme” to convert the black money of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “suit-booted friends” to white.

Senior Congress leader and former finance minister P Chidambaram described demonetisation as the “most ingeniously-designed official money-laundering scheme”.

Congress’ chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala asked why the BJP government did not issue any advertisement or congratulate people on the 2nd anniversary of demonetisation as they had done in the past.