TSIT ■ Hyderabad
Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) working President and Minister for IT and Industries, K T Rama Rao (known as KTR) on Monday stated that the Demonetisation, which was announced by PM Narendra Modi’s government on November 8, 2016, was a ‘ colossal failure and crippled the growing Indian economy’.
KTR opined that this half-baked idea threw the economy into chaos, led to 8 consecutive quarters of slowdown, subsequently landing in Lockdown in 2020 and has served a body blow to the vibrant economy of our country.
Recounting the horrors of demonetization on the eve of its Sixt anniversary, the Minister demanded that PM Modi should ‘apologise ‘ to the people of the nation for this ‘massive policy failure’ and should take urgent measures to bring the economy back on track.
The fact that six years after that hasty decision to scrap all the high-value currency in circulation, the amount of currency with public funds has hit an all-time high of Rs 30.88 lakh Crore – is a proof of how spectacularly demonetization has failed, said KTR.He said that while Demonetization was announced, PM Narendra Modi and the ruling BJP party government has listed out several ‘benefits’ that would accrue from this decision but six years later, it is clear that all those claims have fallen flat.
Wild claims were made that demonetization will reduce cash in circulation, end terrorism, reduce black money, reduce counterfeit currency and bring in cashless economy. Last six years experience proves that sadly, all those claims of PM Narendra Modi have been proved wrong, KTR said.
He stated that the cash in circulation has increased by 72 per cent or Rs 12.91 lakh crore from Rs 17.97 lakh crore on November 4, 2016. Our country continues to witness terrorist activities on a regular basis, there is no hope of any large amount of black money coming back into the formal economy, and more alarmingly there is an increase in counterfeit currency. Hundreds of lives were lost in the serpentine queues at ATMs during the initial weeks of demonetization, reminded the Minister.
The Prime Minister has claimed that if the desired benefits are not seen within 50 days, he could be burned alive. After six years, the lives and livelihoods of crores of poor and middle income group Indians have been burned down by demonetization, said Minister KTR.
Instead of bringing in the claimed benefits, Demonetization has resulted in several disastrous effects on the Indian economy, he said.
The Minister said that between 2016 and 2019, demonetization has resulted in a whopping 50 Lakh people losing their jobs. 88 lakh taxpayers didn’t file returns in the year of note ban due to loss in jobs or incomes.
The MSME sector suffered the most as these small and medium enterprises depended a lot on cash and the sudden demonetization resulted in closure of lakhs of MSMEs across the country.
‘Demonetization is just one of the major policy failures of the Narendra Modi government’, he said it is such policy failures which have resulted in record unemployment, untamed inflation and an economy in tatters.
All these are proof of how Narendra Modi’s government is one of the worst performing Union Governments in the history of independent India, KTR added.
