Shashi Tharoor, Leading Notes Ban Protest, Says He Was Arrested

Thiruvananthapuram: Congress leader Shashi Tharoor was arrested this afternoon and released soon after. He was heading a protest of about 500 party workers today in his constituency of Thiruvananthapuram to protest against Prime Minister Narendra Modi's demonetisation drive. Mr Tharoor and the others were demonstrating at the office of the Reserve Bank of India or RBI, and blocked a major road, causing traffic jams, said the police.  

"We were sitting on a peaceful dharna outside RBI office but we were arrested by police and were later released," said Mr Tharoor to news agency ANI.

Mr Tharoor is among the Congress' modest 44 Lok Sabha MPs. The party, along with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, has anchored the opposition's attacks on the ban imposed in November on 500- and 1,000-rupee notes aimed at unearthing black money.

The deadline to turn in the abolished notes was December 30. The Reserve Bank of India has refused to comment on reports that 97 percent of the outlawed currency has been deposited at banks, suggesting that no black money has been destroyed or forced out of circulation. The central bank said it is still tallying the deposits. "I don't know," said Finance Minister Arun Jaitley when asked on Wednesday about the estimates.

PM Modi says the decision to scrap high-value bank notes will give the economy a further boost and  provide long-term benefits, including forcing the country's vast shadow economy into the open.

India expects growth of around 7 per cent in the first half of the next fiscal year, two officials unnamed by news agency by Reuters said, painting a rosier picture for the economy than many economists after the notes ban was introduced on November 8.

India's gross domestic product grew an annual 7.3 percent growth between July and September, making it the world's fastest growing large economy, but many economists say expansion will slow substantially in the current quarter to 6.5 percent to 7 percent, as small businesses fired workers, consumer demand fell and farmers' winter sowing efforts were hit.

Demonetisation has become a major election issue in states going to the polls this year, such as Uttar Pradesh, where the performance of the BJP will be seen as a test of the PM's reform as well as his popularity mid-way through his term.

According to Reuters, government officials involved in budget discussions for the 2017/18 fiscal year, acknowledged that growth in Asia's third-largest economy would still be less than the 7.75 percent initially projected for the current fiscal year.

The budget, expected to be presented on February 1, leaves the government little room to hand out large, populist sops, despite demands by politicians, businessmen and other lobby groups for relief to the industry and taxpayers.

"There is no scope for big-ticket spending, like debt waivers for farmers, or transferring money into poor people's accounts," said one of the officials who spoke to Reuters.