Note ban a scam to help crony capitalist friends of Modi: Rahul
New Delhi, Aug 30 : In a double-barrel attack, Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Thursday called demonetization a scam intended to benefit "15-20 crony capitalist friends" of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and accused him of lying in the Rafale deal.
Gandhi, who addressed a hurriedly called press conference at the AICC headquarters, alleged that demonetization was a deliberate attack on the people aimed at helping the richest Indians and the most corrupt people to convert their black money into white.
Latching on to the RBI report of Wednesday that said that 99.3 per cent of demonetized money had come back into the system, he questioned the rationale behind the decision to cancel all Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes suddenly in November 2016.
None of the stated objectives like elimination of black money and fake currency, abolition of corruption and curbing terrorism had been achieved, he said.
"Demonetization was not a mistake. It was an attack on you. You were attacked with an axe. Do not be under any illusion. It was not a mistake. This was to destroy you deliberately and open the way for big businesses like Amazon," he said in reference to small and medium businesses that were hurt the most by the note ban.
Accusing Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley of destroying the economy, Gandhi said the NPAs have touched over Rs 12 lakh crore under NDA against Rs 2.5 lakh crore during UPA which was manageable.
"Why did he (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) do it (demonetization)? His 15-20 big industrialist friends had accumulated NPAs to the tune of thousands of crore. So through demonetization your (common man's) money was taken out of your pocket and put directly in the pockets of the country's biggest crony capitalists," Gandhi told the media.
He said Modi's "friends" turned black money into white after the note ban.
"For example, a cooperative bank in Gujarat whose Director is (BJP President) Amit Shah exchanged Rs 700 crore in the wake of demonetization. It cannot even be called a jumla, it can be called a scam. The aim was to destroy small businesses and aid corruption.
"Indeed, Prime Minister Modi did what had not been done in the last 70 years... He did it and devastated the economy (through demonetization)."
He said the Prime Minister owed a reply to the people, specially the youths and small and medium businesses over the unrealized objectives of demonetization and noted that it had adversely impacted on GDP growth rate by 2 per cent.
Gandhi said demonetization was "a huge scam" and slowly evidence was coming out and more will come out.
Replying to a question if he would seek an apology from Modi, he said an apology was sought when someone makes a mistake.
"It was not a mistake but a deliberate attack on the people of the country. He paid back those who market him. Crony capitalists do his marketing and he snatches money of people and pays them (back)," Gandhi said.
Stepping up his attack on the Rafale fighter jet deal, he said Jaitley was writing "lengthy"blogs but why was the government silent on the demand for a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe into the issue. "Jaitley is scared to ask the PM about constituting a JPC."
He referred to the joint statement issued after Modi announced the Rafale deal which mentioned that the aircraft would be delivered on the same configuration as had been earlier approved by the Indian Air Force.
"If the configuration is going to be the same, why is the man lying?"
He said the Prime Minister was not taken seriously any more on promises like he made to put Rs 15 lakh of money in every Indian's bank account. "But when he lies, we catch him."
"There is a huge list of unfulfilled promises and lies. His words hold no meaning anymore."
He alleged that the BJP opened offices in several parts of the country during the note ban.
Answering a query, he said the entire party was receiving legal notices from industrialist Anil Ambani over its allegations on the Rafale deal but the party was not worried.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
