The Congress on Thursday was on the offensive in the House, with former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh saying that while he agrees with the objectives of demonetisation, there has “been monumental mismanagement” with the way it has been implemented. Without mincing any words, he added that the scheme is an “organised loot and legalised plunder”.
He further added that the move will hurt agricultural and small industries in the country.
"It is monumental management failure. It is a case of organised loot and legalised plunder. It is not my intention to pick holes. I sincerely hope prime minister, even at this late hour, will find a solution," the former prime minister said.
Singh also said that he hopes the Prime Minister fill find a way to give relief to all the people suffering because of the move.
"The GDP of the country can decline by two percentage point, this is an under estimate not an over estimate. It is no good that everyday the banking system comes up with new rules, it reflects very poorly on the PMO and the RBI," Singh further added.
"It is important to take note of the grievances of the ordinary people who have suffered. I say so with all responsibility, we do not know what will be the final outcome. The prime minister says we should wait for 50 days. Fifty days is not a long time. But for the poor even a short period of 50 days can be disastrous. Till now 60 to 65 people have lost their lives," he said.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee likened Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Hitler after meeting President Pranab Mukherjee.
“You couldn’t recover black money from Swiss banks, but you created inconvenience for those with white money. You’ve created more havoc than Hitler,” she said.
The Prime Minister Narendra Modi left the Parliament post lunch, creating uproar in the House. Later both Houses adjourned till 11 am on Friday.
Addressing the media after the session was adjourned till 3 pm, Arun Jaitley said that parties who were once part of political scandals should not be malign the government’s scheme.
“Those parties who were once a part of every scandal in the country are now opposing demonetisation. Those who didn’t consider scandals to be a blunder, they are considering demonetisation to be a blunder. Their government had the most scams and black money generated during its tenure. They think demonetisation blunder. Don’t they think Commonwealth and 2G was a blunder?”
He also attacked Mayawati saying that she will know the position of her party (BSP) when the UP elections happen next year.