Notebandi ka ek baras nahi, barsi hai: Akhilesh Yadav on demonetisation

Former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday targeted the Narendra Modi government on the eve of the anniversary of demonetisation. Taking to Twitter, the Samajwadi Party leader said that it was the ‘barsi’ (death anniversary) of notes ban on Wednesday.

Yadav posted the tweet in Hindi, targeting the government over current economic situation and unemployment. His tweet said, “Amid the poor state of economy, bad condition of businesses and country-wide unemployment, celebration of demonetisation is sad. It’s not one year of demonetisation, it’s the first death anniversary of it.”

अर्थव्यवस्था की बदहाली, कारोबार-उद्योग की बर्बादी व देशव्यापी बेरोज़गारी में नोटबंदी का जश्न दुखद है. ये नोटबंदी का एक बरस नहीं बरसी है. — Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) November 7, 2017

Notably, the opposition parties have planned to mark November 8 as ‘Black Day’ while the government has planned to celebrate it as ‘anti-black money day’.

Earlier on Tuesday, former prime minister Manmohan Singh attacked the Narendra Modi government over the issue, saying “November 8 was a black day for our economy and indeed our democracy”.

"Tomorrow we mark one year since the disastrous policy was thrust on the people of our country," the former PM said in poll-bound Gujarat.

Criticising the policy, he said that coercive steps like demonetisation are ineffective in promoting less cash economy. "Nowhere in the world has any nation taken such a drastic step that swept off 86% of the currency," he said.

Reiterating his stand on demonetisation, Singh termed it as “organised loot and legalised plunder”.

The government, however, stood firm in its stand on the issue, with Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley claiming that generations to come would hail the notes ban undertaken by the Narendra Modi government.

Jaitley on Tuesday said that note ban cannot be a one-stop solution to cleanse all corruption, but it did give a "new direction" to economic and financial decisions.

"Demonetisation is not a one-stop solution to end corruption. It cannot be, but it did change the agenda. And that changed agenda is that we should go towards less-cash economy. Individual tax payers' number has increased, digital transactions have gone up and terror funding has squeezed," Jaitley said on eve of note ban anniversary.

The Finance Minister said he was "more than satisfied" with the new direction the economy is moving.