New Delhi: The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) announcement Friday on the withdrawal of Rs 2,000 currency notes from circulation has evoked sharp responses from opposition parties.
Slamming the central government’s 2016 move to demonetise currency notes to “end corruption”, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted in Hindi that the “public has to suffer” such decisions.
He further took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying “that’s why we say, the PM should be educated”.
Senior Congress leader and former finance minister P. Chidambaram tweeted that he won’t “be surprised if the government re-introduced the Rs 1,000 note”.
On 8 November, 2016, the BJP-led central government had introduced the Rs 2,000 currency note following the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 banknotes.
On Friday, the central bank in a notification asked banks to stop issuing the Rs 2,000 note with immediate effect, stating that they would continue to be legal tender. Banks have been directed to deposit and/or exchange the notes until 30 September.
“The Rs 2,000 note is hardly a popular medium of exchange. We said this in November 2016 and we have been proved correct… it was a band-aid to cover up the foolish decision of demonetising Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes which were popular and widely exchanged currencies,” Chidambaram tweeted Friday.
The Trinamool Congress (TMC), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) also joined the chorus of critical voices, while some like the YSR Congress and Telugu Desam Party welcomed the move.
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‘Thook ke chatna’
Commenting on the RBI’s announcement about the pink note, BSP chief Mayawati said on social media Sunday that “since currency and its price in the world market are related to interest and prestige of the country, frequent changes in it directly affect public interest”.
“That’s why a proper study on its effects and consequences is necessary before doing so. The government must pay attention to this,” she tweeted in Hindi.
The ruling party in Telangana, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), termed the withdrawal of the Rs 2,000 note “illogical and absurd”.
“The government of India’s decision to withdraw Rs 2,000 notes is completely absurd and illogical. Actually, Mr Narendra Modi has proven that he is inefficient and incapable (PM), and the demonetisation that was announced in the year 2016 was a failure,” the party’s spokesperson said in a video message.
Congress leader and Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel also targeted the RBI and BJP-led Union government Saturday over the move.
He was quoted as saying to the media: “When in 2016 currency notes of Rs 2,000 were launched, it was said that it had nanochips that could be detected via a satellite even if these tenders were buried, and tell us where the black money was hidden.”
“It (Rs 2,000 note) was introduced to eradicate black money. The black money did not end but the note was withdrawn. We want to ask the RBI why it was withdrawn from circulation… which means you are changing your decision in seven years. It is like ‘thook ke chatna’ (eating your words),” he added.
West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC president Mamata Banerjee termed the withdrawal of notes as “imperious measures” taken to camouflage the fundamentally “anti-people and crony capitalist nature of the regime”.
“Another whimsical & Tughlaqi demonetisation drama of Rs 2,000 notes will hit the common people hard once again by subjecting them to massive harassment… such misadventures by an oligarchic & authoritarian government will not be forgotten by the people at large at the time of reckoning,” she tweeted Saturday.
Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra had also hit out at the central government Friday, saying on social media that “no civilised nation puts its people in constant fear of cash turning to toilet paper”.
Among the critics was also Sitaram Yechury, chief of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).
“Modi made DeMon disaster, criminally crippled crores of livelihoods, claimed hundreds of lives, destroying the informal economy & MSMEs that contribute most to employment generation & GDP growth,” he wrote on Twitter, adding that “cash in circulation is up 83% since the Modi made demonetisation disaster”.
DMK president and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, too, reacted to the withdrawal of notes Saturday, saying that it was “a ploy to cover up the miserable failure (of the BJP) in Karnataka (assembly polls)”.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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