Owaisi dares BJP to celebrate ‘Demonetisation Day’ after Supreme Court verdict

On Monday, the Supreme Court in a 4:1 verdict upheld the government's decision to invalidate high-value banknotes in November 2016 saying the decision-making process was not flawed.

As the BJP on Monday hailed the Supreme Court's verdict rejecting a clutch of petitions challenging the demonetisation as a big win for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi challenged the saffron party to celebrate ‘Demonetisation Day’. Hitting out at the Modi government, Owaisi said the demonetisation 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.

AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi.(ANI)

“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 Lok Sabha member told reporters in Hyderabad.

“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'.”

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.

On Monday, the Supreme Court in a 4:1 verdict upheld the government's decision to invalidate high-value banknotes in November 2016 saying the decision-making process was not flawed. The 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. In her dissenting opinion, justice BV Nagarathna differed with the other judges on the question of whether all procedures were duly followed before taking the decision.

The verdict triggered a war of words, with the ruling BJP calling Congress anti-poor while hitting at it for promoting the informal economy. The BJP said the court’s majority decision is a testament that the policy was well-intentioned.

“The Supreme Court by a majority judgement dismissed all the 58 writ petitions that challenged the historic demonetisation scheme...it said this whole exercise was done for a valid cause to check fake currency, terror funding and black marketing. The court said the government has the right to take such a policy decision and that the RBI [Reserve Bank of India] was consulted,” said BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad.