Congress president Rahul Gandhi said here on Thursday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi lied to the people of the country on the “benefits” of demonetisation. The Amethi MP said the result of the ‘notebandi’ is out and the entire money is back in exchequer.

‘Economy hit’

“He promised the people that demonetisation will end black money, fake currency and terrorism. Now, the entire money is back. Two per cent of the GDP and employment of crores of people was taken away. The PM must answer what was the logic and reasoning for such a big blow to the people of the country,” he said.

He said 10-15 big corporates are the only beneficiaries of demonetisation. “I want to tell the youth and retailers of this country that Modi took the money from the people to help 10-15 crony capitalists of the country. This was the biggest aim of demonetisation. Modi’s friends used the opportunity to launder black money and we have seen how a Gujarat cooperative bank, of which BJP president Amit Shah is a director, changed ₹700 crore worth old notes,” he said.

“There is a huge list of unfulfilled promises and lies. His words don’t hold meaning anymore,” Rahul Gandhi added. He said the economy has gone for a toss after the decision.

Over Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s claim that demonetisation was done to formalise the economy, Rahul said the real intention will be known “soon enough”.

“The intention was to help the richest, the most corrupt people changed their money from black to white. The aim was also to kill the small and medium businesses to help big businesses. ‘ Notebandi’ was an attack on them. It pavedthe way for big companies like Amazon,” he said.

“There is evidence. You will see that notebandi is a huge scam,” he said. He alleged that the big companies funded the PR campaign for Narendra Modi during elections. “Modi was repaying his debt to corporates by taking the money from people’s pockets,” he said.

The Congress president said the economy is in bad shape under Modi-Jaitley regime. “We have showed the country how the economy can be run effectively. The NPAs grew from ₹2 lakh crore during our time to ₹12 lakh crore at present,” he said.

On Rafale

On the Rafale scam, he said the ADAG Chairman Anil Ambani has filed defamation suits against the Congress in every district of the country. “You can file as many suits as possible . But the truth is that the demonetisation was to benefit 15 big corporate houses and the Rafale deal was signed for the benefit of Modi’s friends,” he said.

Form JPC

He urged the Government to announce a JPC probe into Rafale scam. “They are scared,” he said.

“Rafale is a clearcut case. Anil Ambani has never made aircrafts. He is under a debt of ₹45000 crore. But HAL has been making aircrafts for 70 years and they are not under any debt,” he said.

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