DMK slams Modi regime for going back on demonetisation vows

CHENNAI: The ruling DMK on Monday slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led BJP regime at the Centre for failing to fulfil the promise of retrieving black money and eliminating fake currency notes it had made while announcing demonetisation in 2016.

In a strongly-worded editorial summarising the impact of demonetisation, DMK mouthpiece ‘Murasoli’ said that it was not sure if the mysteries of demonetisation would unfold even though the Supreme Court has raised pertinent queries in a related case after six years.

Taking exception to the Centre’s counsel that individual’s grievances could be resolved administratively and a five-judge Constitution bench adjudication was not necessary for the case, the Murasoli editorial said that the BJP led Centre has not realised even after six years that over 100 crore people were affected due to demonetisation.

Recalling the arguments placed by senior Congress leader P Chidambaram before the apex court that due procedures were not followed by the incumbent regime in 2016, unlike in 1978 when a minor demonetisation was last taken up, the editorial said that the BJP regime was under compulsion to state the actual reason for effecting demonetisation.

Seeking to know if one could argue that black money, hawala transactions, fake currency and drugs have been abolished, as was promised by the Prime Minister in 2016, the DMK cited the size of drug seizure in Gujarat ports worth several thousand crores, and said that UN agencies state that drugs produced in Afghanistan are shipped to east and south African countries through the Indian ocean, mainly Gujarat.

Alleging that drug prevalence has increased 300% in northern states in the last five years, the DMK said that National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) data suggests that fake currency notes, most Rs 2,000 denomination notes, worth Rs 21 crore, have been seized in 2021 alone.

While the government claimed that Rs 2,000 denomination notes were circulated to completely eliminate fake currency notes, NCRB data shows that most fake notes belonged to Rs 2,000 denomination, the DMK added.

Citing a media report on seizure of Rs 317 crore vorth fake currency notes from Gujarat, the DMK wondered what has become of the promise of eliminating fake notes.

“The Prime Minister, who promised to bring back black money, has not retrieved it even after eight years. He still harps on corruption. What has become of the promise he made on the midnight of 2016,” Murasoli concluded.