Modi’s note ban illegal, unconstitutional: Congress leader

Guwahati, Jan 5 (IANS) Attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his demonetisation move, AICC General Secretary C.P. Joshi on Thursday said that his unplanned decision to go for the note ban was not only illegal but also unconstitutional.

Joshi, who is also the AICC observer for Assam, said this after emerging from a meeting of the Northeast Pradesh Congress Committee (NPCC) held at Rajiv Bhavan in Assam's capital city Guwahati.

"The Prime Minister or the Finance Minister do not have any right to announce monetary policy. Only the Reserve Bank of India has the legal authority to do that," he said, adding that the Indian economy would reel under the negative impact of demonetisation for two years at least.

"People of lower income group have been affected, especially due to the demonetisation policy of the government, and in Assam, the tea garden workers are particularly affected due to the cash crisis," he said.

Joshi said that Modiji often talks about corruption and scams, but the country's worst ever financial scam took place during demonetisation.

"The Prime Minister had earlier said the note ban would hit black money hard. Almost 60 days have passed since demonetisation, but the black money is yet to come back to the banking system," he added.

The PCC presidents and senior party leaders of all the northeastern states took part in the meeting and resolved to make the people of their states aware about the anti-people policies of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre.