Aditi Tandon
New Delhi, January 2
Hailing the majority judgment of the Supreme Court upholding the constitutional validity of the government’s 2016 demonetisation move, the ruling BJP on Monday said note ban was the biggest blow to terrorism and asked former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi whether he would apologise for his anti-note ban campaign at home and abroad.
Leading the offensive against the Congress on the issue, which the ruling dispensation will most certainly revive at the hustings this year when nine states will go to polls, former minister and BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad slammed Congress veteran P Chidambaram’s remarks on the dissenting judgment as “scandalous.”
“Mr Chidambaram chooses to stay silent on the majority judgment and terms the minority judgment a welcome slap on the wrist of the government even though the minority judgments calls note ban a well intentioned move. We condemn these remarks outright. These remarks are scandalous. We would also like to remind Mr Chidambaram of the golden principle that lawyers who argue matters in courts don’t conventionally comment on those matters publicly,” Prasad said questioning Chidambaram for commenting on demonetization in the court, in the Parliament and also outside.
Welcoming the judgment as one “in national interest”, Prasad said it vindicated the government stand that the decision was for a valid cause to remove fake currency, black money, prevent terror finding and money laundering.
“The constitution bench by a 5-1 verdict has upheld the constitutional validity of demonetization and rejected 58 petitions; held that the government had the right and the discretion to undertake economic policy decisions; and also held that the process of decision making was fair and reasonable and there was no violation of RBI Act’s section 26 (2). The central bank was consulted,” said Prasad.
He said even the dissenting judgment terms the decision well intentioned while arguing that it should have stemmed from the legislative route.
Earlier today Chidambaram said the minority judgment was a slap on the wrist of the government and a welcome slap at that.
Hitting back at the Congress the BJP said the Congress “in its own way promoted and protected informal economy elements in the country.”
Listing the benefits of note ban, Prasad said it was a pro-poor step as it removed leakages and promoted transparency.
“A storm was raised by the Congress about this issue. Rahul Gandhi spoke of demonetisation not just at home but also abroad.
He only understand when the court verdict comes. Will he now say sorry?” asked Prasad.
He said the Government always maintained that demonetisation was designed to subserve the interests of the poor and to clean up the economy.
“Transparency has increased after note ban. India became a world leader in digital transactions after note ban. Just in October 2016 India recorded a bumper harvest of digital transactions of 730 crore worth Rs 12 lakh crore,” the BJP leader said.
He said after demonetisation tax collections in 2017-18 rose 18 pc, 2,38,000 fake shell companies were detected caught and transactions stopped.
The informal sector involvement in economy fell from 52 to 20 pc, the BJP argued adding that “Note ban had done a great service to the cause of breaking the backbone of terrorism because financial support was over.”
“Demonetisation policy is the biggest blow to terrorism because terror funding is integral to terrorism. Rahul only understands when court verdict comes.
What all didn’t he said about the prime minister on the Rafale deal was highly unfortunate. But he went cold after the SC verdict on Rafale. Will Rahul Gandhi say sorry for his campaign against demonetisation ?” the BJP asked.
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