New Delhi: Launching a scathing attack on Narendra Modi government over the 2016 demonestisation move, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said November 8 will be observed as a 'sad day'.
While briefing the press after meeting host of Congress leaders ahead of first noteban anniversary, the Gandhi scion said, “The Prime Minister has asked to celebrate on November 8, it means that he has not felt the pain and understood the feelings of people.”
"The decision of demonetisation was an out-and-out disaster. The Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) is yet not able to understand the pain of the nation," Rahul Gandhi said after a meeting of party general secretaries here.
The Congress leader further hit out at PM Modi saying, the country's economy has been hit and destroyed with two torpedoes, one the demonetisation decision and the GST.
On November 8, 2016, the Centre had decided to scrap Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.
Former union finance minister and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram had said, “Demonetisation is the biggest man-made disaster that hit India, worse than the 2004 Tsunami.”
"Demonetisation was a bad idea, full stop. GST is a good idea, but it has been hastily implemented. It should have been implemented with due care and attention,” the Congress veteran had said.
On November 8, 2017 the BJP will organise programmes highlighting all the steps the government has taken against black money.
BJP president Amit Shah recently said that note ban and other initiatives undertaken by the Centre reflected his party's resolve to build a corruption-free India.
"Demonetisation, black money SIT and other initiatives reflect our commitment towards building a nation free from corruption," he tweeted.
The Congress-led 18 Opposition parties have announced that they will observe November 8 as Black Day to protest against the "ill-conceived and hasty" decision of the government to scrap Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes a year ago.
The IMF has lowered India's growth projection to 6.7 percent in 2017, 0.5 percentage points less than its previous two forecasts in April and July, attributing it to demonetisation and introduction of the GST.
