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Those close to PM Modi will benefit from note ban as the poor suffer: Rahul
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi kept up his tirade against the Prime Minister on Monday, saying Narendra Modi scrapped high-value currency and unleashed chaos across India to benefit his own people.
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Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi kept up his tirade against the Prime Minister on Monday, saying Narendra Modi scrapped high-value currency and unleashed chaos across India to benefit his own people.
Speaking to reporters outside Parliament, Gandhi said the Prime Minister hadn’t consulted anyone, not even his own ministers, before announcing a surprise recall of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes about two months ago.
“The 15-20 people close to the Prime Minister will fill their coffers, get their bank loans waived. Our poor folk who stand in line will be harmed,” Gandhi told ANI.
Gandhi has been at the forefront of the opposition to the demonetisation move and his party, the Congress, has stalled Parliament for days demanding that the Prime Minister address the House on the issue.
The Opposition says the withdrawal of high-value notes has disproportionately hurt the poor, the farmers and the marginalised. But the government is in no mood to relent, accusing the Congress and other parties of not supporting a drive against the weeding out of illegal cash.
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“Wherever I have gone, I have seen people in distress. They say we were standing the queue for hours and the money is being disbursed from backchannels.”
Gandhi’s comments came after he visited a number of ATMs across Delhi early Monday morning, talking to people who had lined up for hours in the hope for cash.
The demonetization drive was aimed at stamping out black money but a bumpy rollout has seen snaking queues outside banks and ATMs.
