On RBI's ‘ ₹2000 note’ move, Mahua Moitra's ‘cash turning to toilet paper’ jab

As per the RBI, about 89% of the ₹2,000 denomination notes were issued prior to March 2017 and are at the end of their estimated life span of 4-5 years.

Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra on Friday hit out at the Narendra Modi-led government over the central bank's decision to withdraw its highest-value currency notes from circulation, saying no civilised nation puts its people in constant fear of “cash turning to toilet paper.”

TMC MP Mahua Moitra addresses a press conference, in Kolkata. (PTI / File)

“Why should we stress about our wallets vaporising every few years?” Mahua Moitra wrote on Twitter, alluding that the RBI's move was a “distraction” created by the ruling BJP and Prime Minister Modi.

“BJP & Modiji’s distractions cut no ice,” she said. “You lost Karnataka. You will lose more states. Also you cannot save Adani.”

While the RBI did not specify a limit for depositing the ₹2,000 currency notes in bank accounts, the exchange of a maximum of ₹20,000 (10 notes of ₹2,000) for other currency notes will be allowed at a time.

The Trinamool Congress lambasted the union government, asserting that this "arbitrary" decision will harm the country's economy as the demonetisation of 2016 had done.

TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said, "We have seen how the country's people faced hardships during the demonetisation in 2016. It has destroyed the country's economy and claimed several lives. The BJP again wants to thrust similar hardships on the people through its decision to withdraw ₹2,000 notes."

The TMC leader said the BJP had turned the country's economy into a "child's play".

"High-value notes were demonetised (in 2016) with a claim that that it would curb black money. But in reality, it helped some people convert black money into white. Demonetisation destroyed the country's economy and small businesses and a lot of people lost their jobs," he said.