Congress leader welcomes Shiv Sena's comments on demonetization

A Congress leader Friday termed the Shiv Sena's comments, that people were "waiting to punish" Prime Minister Narendra Modi for announcing demonetisation two years ago, as "interesting and fairly accurate".

All India Congress Committee (AICC) secretary in- charge of Maharashtra, Ashish Dua, however, also said it remains to be seen if the Shiv Sena would still be part of the BJP-led governments at the Centre and the state despite the constant criticism of its senior ally.

Shiv Sena spokesperson Manisha Kayande had Thursday slammed the 2016 note ban decision of the Centre and claimed: "the situation after two years has become so bad that people are waiting to punish the PM".

On November 8, 2016, Modi had announced scrapping of then in use Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 denomination bank notes with immediate effect. "Interesting...Statement & observation by a long-term ally of #BJP over #DemonetisationDisaster is fairly accurate...Now, whether .#ShivSena will sail the same boat to be downed in #Maharashtra or chart a different course is yet to be seen... Time will tell!" Dua tweeted.

The Sena spokesperson had also claimed the note ban exercise was a "complete failure" as none of its objectives was achieved.

"While the (Union) Finance Minister says a number of people have been brought under the tax net, he has failed to explain the rationale behind it (demonetisation) as several lakh people lost jobs," Kayande had said Thursday.

However, the BJP strongly defended the note ban exercise. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had Thursday said demonetisation has strengthened the economy and increased the government resources to fund poverty alleviation and infrastructure development programme.

"What has happened to prophets of doom who said India's GDP will decline by at least 2 per cent. For the fifth year running India will be the fastest growing (large) economy in the world.

"It is continuing to happen. So prophets of doom have been proved wrong and conclusively proved wrong," Jaitley had told reporters in New Delhi. Jaitley had said that demonetisation has favourably impacted the tax system, digitisation, and formalisation of India economy.

"By the time the first five years of this government are over, we will be close to doubling the assessee base," he had said.