Prime Minister Narendra Modi blamed his distant predecessor Indira Gandhi for not implementing Demonetization in 1971. He said the Country suffered from huge loss as Indira Gandhi refused when demonetization was suggested to her by then Home Minister Y.B. Chavan. The Prime Minister said, “The Wanchoo committee had said it will boost economy. Now after 45 years we have done Demonetization but Congress is opposing it. The Left has also joined hands with Congress.”
Referring to the Madhav Godbole book, Mr. Modi said that Y.B. Chavan had recommended the Demonetization move to curb corruption and Gandhi replied saying, “are no more elections to be fought by the Congress?”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi further said, “This was in 1971 when everybody recommended this. Had it (demonetisation) been done in 1971, the nation wouldn’t have been in this situation today.”
He also said that congress had made a law against benami assets in 1988 but never implemented it. Modi said that the Congress party had always put its party ahead of the Nation but the BJP follows “nation first” policy. “For us, the country’s interests are always above the party’s. For Congress, party’s interests are above the Country’s,” said Modi.
Recalling the late veteran Marxist, Jyoti Basu‘s comments on Indira Gandhi saying that “Indira Gandhi survives on black money”, Modi said, “The government (of the Congress) is the black money, by the black money, and for the black money”.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave it back to the Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on the allegations against him for being corrupt.
