Indira Gandhi should have done it in '71: Narendra Modi on Demonetisation

New Delhi: Asserting that it was always “nation first” for the BJP, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday accused the Congress and Opposition parties of safeguarding the interests of dishonest and corrupt people by stalling Parliament proceedings over demonetisation.

Citing a book that mentioned then Union finance minister Y.B. Chavan going to then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1971 with the recommendation of a committee on demonetisation, where she was quoted asking Chavan whether there were “no more elections to be fought by the Congress Party”, Mr Modi said if the Congress had taken the right decision at the right time, the country would have been in a better position now.

He claimed that late Communist leaders Jyotirmoy Basu and Harkishan Singh Surjeet were also in favour of demonetisation, and hit out at the Left parties for backing the Congress.

Addressing the BJP parliamentary party on the last day of the Winter Session of Parliament, Mr Modi said that unlike in the past when the Opposition parties stalled the House over scams and in order to expose corruption, the Congress-led Opposition was doing it now as the government took steps to curb black money and corruption. The Prime Minister told party leaders they should fight to rid the country of corruption and black money with confidence and urged them to popularise the government’s thrust on digital transactions as a “way of life”.