Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has criticised PM Narendra Modi over demonetisation. (File)
Highlights
- Manmohan Singh says notes ban caused 'grievous injury' to honest Indian
- Impetuous decision, 'PM has shattered faith of millions', says Dr Singh
- Former PM mentions of ripple effect on GDP and job creation
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's notes ban decision is a "travesty of his fundamental duty" and has destroyed the confidence of more than a billion Indians, his predecessor Manmohan Singh has said in a searing critique published in
The Hindu newspaper today.
Dr Singh's editorial - "Making of a Mammoth Tragedy" - predicts a ripple effect on GDP and job creation, and a tough period over the coming months, "needlessly so". The decision would cause "grievous injury" to the honest Indian... and the dishonest black money hoarder will get away with a "mere rap on the knuckles."
On November 24, the former Prime Minister, a renowned economist who steered reforms in the 1990s as Finance minister, said in parliament that the impact of the ban on high-denomination notes as "organised loot, legalised plunder". His article elaborates on that view.
"In one impetuous decision, the Prime Minister has shattered the faith and confidence that hundreds of millions of Indians had reposed in the Government of India to protect them and their money," he writes.
"It is now evident that this sudden overnight ban on currency has dented the confidence of hundreds of millions of Indian consumers, which can have severe economic ramifications. The scars of an overnight depletion of the honest wealth of a vast majority of Indians combined with their ordeal of rationed access to new currency will be too deep to heal quickly."
In a dig at the government, he says: "It may be tempting and self-fulfilling to believe that one has all the solutions and previous governments were merely lackadaisical in their attempts to curb black money. It is not so."
He describes the intention behind the notes ban - checking tax evasion and fake money used by terrorists - as honourable and worthy of whole-hearted support. But, he points out, more than 90 per cent of India's workforce still earns wages in cash and more than 600 million Indians live in a town or village with no bank, who save their money in bigger notes. "To tarnish these as 'black money' and throw the lives of these hundreds of millions of poor people in disarray is a mammoth tragedy," he says.