Hyderabad: Hitting out at the Narendra Modi government at the Centre over its demonetisation move in 2016, All-India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) president and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi on Monday challenged the ruling BJP to celebrate 'Demonetisation Day.' Owaisi, a vocal critic of the BJP and its ideologies, slammed the Modi government for repeatedly claiming that the demonetisation move was taken to primarily check the flow of black money, among others. The AIMIM chief claimed that demonetisation badly affected the economy.
According to Owaisi, the decision (on demonetisation) was wrong as it led to a decline in the growth of the GDP to 4 per cent in 2019-2020 from 8.3 per cent in 2016-17. “We want to tell the Prime Minister why don't you celebrate 'Demonetisation Day'. If demonetisation was a success and if they think it was a success, we challenge the BJP why don't they celebrate 'Demonetisation Day'. The Prime Minister knows that women, daily wage workers, artisans, drivers, electricians, and masons were affected owing to demonetisation. Why doesn't the BJP celebrate 'Notebandi Divas'?," the Hyderabad MP told reporters.
Telangana | I suggest PM Modi to celebrate 'Demonetisation Day' why don't they celebrate now? It is because they know that plumbers, drivers, artists, electricians, etc were destroyed due to demonetisation: AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on SC verdict on demonetisation pic.twitter.com/eJ6eJR3COJ
— ANI (@ANI) January 2, 2023
Quoting a report, Owaisi said 50 lakh people lost employment. "After demonetisation, people took loans. Prime Minister shrunk the workforce and that showed his incompetence. Today, 32.18 lakh crore of currency is in circulation as against 17.97 lakh crore (during that time)," Owaisi said.
The extremely critical remarks from the AIMIM chief came after the Supreme Court, in a 4:1 verdict, today upheld the decision to demonetise the Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes by saying the decision-making process was not flawed.
Observing that the decision being an economic policy of the executive cannot be reversed, a 5-judge Constitutional Bench headed by Justice S A Nazeer said there has to be restraint in matters of such a policy and the court cannot supplant the wisdom of the executive by a judicial review of its decision. However, Justice B V Nagarathna strongly differed from the majority judgment by invoking the RBI Act, saying the scrapping of high-value currency notes should have been done through legislation and not by a notification.
