Ghost of demonetization haunts Government, RBI: Chidambaram
New Delhi, April 18: Former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on Wednesday attacked the government and the RBI over the acute cash crunch in the country and said the ghost of demonetization has come back to haunt them.
He also needled the government on the recent bank scams, saying people appeared to have lost confidence in banks.
"I suspect ordinary people are withdrawing cash but not putting back into the banks their surplus cash. It is possible that there is some loss of confidence in the banking system, thanks to the bank scams.
"After demonetizing 500 and 1,000 rupee notes, government printed Rs 2,000 notes! Now, government is complaining that Rs 2,000 notes are being hoarded!! We always knew that Rs 2,000 notes were printed only to help hoarders.
"The ghost of demonetization has come back to haunt the government/RBI. Why are ATMs still bring re-calibrated even 17 months after demonetization?" Chidambaram said in a series of tweets on the reported shortage of money in banks in some states.
"Cash is back with a vengeance," says Navrose Dastur, MD, NCR Corp, India. "I support digitization, but government cannot force the pace of digitization or arbitrarily reduce the supply of cash.
"Is it correct that currency in circulation has increased by only 2.75 per cent since demonetization? If so, I maintain that government/RBI are not allowing money supply to grow at the same rate as the nominal GDP.
"I also suspect that RBI seriously miscalculated demand for cash in the post-harvest season," he said.
"RBI's statement is unsatisfactory. If RBI has printed and supplied sufficient cash, it must explain why there is a cash shortage."
The RBI on Tuesday said that there is "sufficient cash" in its vaults and currency chests and it is "taking steps to move currency to areas" which have witnessed unusually large cash withdrawals.
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I ended eight wars, India and Pakistan were going at it: Trump
New York (PTI): US President Donald Trump repeated his claim that he has solved the conflict between India and Pakistan, saying he ended eight wars but still did not get the Nobel Peace Prize.
"I ended eight wars. I — If you look at those wars, these were tough wars to end, too. And let me tell you, India and Pakistan were going at it. As you know, they were going at it...But that was one of eight. But we ended eight strong wars. Some have been going on for more than 30 years,” Trump said in an interview to The New York Times last week.
He asserted that no one else has ended eight wars and repeated his criticism of former President Barack Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009.
"I've ended — remember this, I’ve ended eight wars. Nobody else has ever done that. I’ve ended eight wars and didn’t get the Nobel Peace Prize. Pretty amazing. Obama got it. He was there for a few weeks, and he got it. He didn’t even know why he got it. They asked him, why did he get it? He was unable to answer the question,” he said.
This was the third time in as many days last week that Trump claimed credit for stopping the conflict between India and Pakistan, an assertion he has now made about 80 times since May 10 last year, when he announced on social media that India and Pakistan agreed to a “full and immediate” ceasefire after a “long night” of talks mediated by Washington.
India has consistently denied any third-party intervention.
During a meeting in the White House on Friday with oil and gas executives to discuss plans for the Venezuelan oil reserves, Trump said “Look, whether people like Trump or don't like Trump, I settled eight wars, big ones. Some going on for 36 years, 32 years, 31 years, 28 years, 25 years, some just getting ready to start like India and Pakistan, where already eight jets were shot out of the air, and I got it done in rapid order without nuclear weapons.”
Trump also said that Prime Minister of Pakistan Shehbaz Sharif, who had visited the White House last year, credited him for saving millions of lives by stopping the conflict between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.
The Pakistani leader "made a very public statement. He said that President Trump saved a minimum of 10 million lives, having to do with Pakistan and India, and that was going to be raging,” he said.
Earlier, in an interview with Fox News on Thursday, Trump said he stopped the war between India and Pakistan, the two nuclear powers "ready to go at it big” as he again claimed that eight planes were shot down in the conflict.
He said one should get a Nobel Prize for stopping each war.
“Because some of these wars were going on for 30 years. India and Pakistan were ready to go at it big. And these are two nuclear countries. I got that one stopped. Eight planes were shot down. They were really at it, and I got it stopped. It was a big one,” Trump had said.
