- Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a rally in Kanpur on 19 December
- Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi also addressed a separate rally in Jaunpur on the same day
- Modi attacked opposition parties for stalling Parliament and accused them of running away from debate
- He announced that shopkeepers who are using debit/credit cards to receive payments are eligible to receive rewards in a lucky draw
- Rahul Gandhi attacked PM Modi at an anti-demonetisation rally in Jaunpur
- He accused PM Modi of ‘fire bombing’ the poor with his demonetisation policy
PM Wanted Money to Be Stuck in Banks: Rahul Gandhi
Rahul argued that the 50 families who account for most of India’s black money owe crores of rupees to the banks. “So PM found a new way to pardon the defaulters. He took money from the poor to put it back into the banks.”
Denying that the execution was poor, Rahul accused the PM of impeccable planning.
If you want to understand the planning, try to understand the goal. The goal was for the money to stay in banks for six months – then that money can be used to forgive loans of the rich.
Rahul added that Congress is not against cashless economy, but that it cannot be imposed on the poor of this country.
Rahul Gandhi in Jaunpur
“Congress wants to wipe out corruption from India and we will support NDA in its fight against corruption. But demonetisation was not against black money. It was against the poor of this country,” said Rahul Gandhi at a Congress rally in Jaunpur.
He added that all cash is not black money, and all black money is not in cash – suggesting that black money is being hoarded by a few families in India, but demonetisation has affected 90 percent of the people, majority of them being the poor.
“Only 6 percent of India’s money is in black,” he insisted. “Why did the PM go after 6 percent black money, and not 94 percent, which is in real estate and in offshore accounts?” Rahul lashed out.
He added that in the last elections, the PM didn’t talk about cash, he spoke about offshore accounts.
The people who have accounts in Swiss banks, they are all known to the Modi government. We have requested him to reveal those names in Parliament, but he has refused to do so.
Rahul suggested that since Modi failed to get money from offshore accounts, he thought of a new strategy – surgical strikes on black money.
“The truth of demonetisation is that it has destroyed the informal sector and the future of crores of youth,” Rahul rallied.
He congratulated the people of Uttar Pradesh for having contributed to selecting the government. “If India has got a stable government, it is mainly because of UP. It is because of UP that the era of coalition has ended,” he said.
Lashing out at the opposition leaders, Modi said: “They even threw torn papers at the Speaker to halt Parliamentary proceedings.”
“They did all this to safeguard the corrupt when the government was busy catching the corrupt,” the Prime Minister said.
PM Modi Attacks Oppn in Kanpur
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday attacked the opposition parties for stalling Parliament and accused them of running away from a debate on demonetisation to “safeguard the corrupt”.
“They didn't allow Parliament to function as they were not ready to debate demonetisation,” Modi told a rally in Kanpur, ahead of assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh early next year.
Virtually the entire winter session of Parliament was washed out over the government’s 8 November decision of scrapping Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes to curb black money, corruption, and terror funding.