Slamming opposition for its continuous attack over demonetisation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi hit back, saying, this move (demonetisation) is not the final destination, it is just a beginning.
Addressing BJP MPs, Modi blamed the Congress for the problems facing the country and said such a situation would not have arisen had the late Indira Gandhi shown the courage to demonetise high value currency in the early 1970s.
Quoting from Madhav Godbole’s Unfinished Innings, Recollections and Reflections of a Civil Servant, the Prime Minister said a committee led by N N Wanchoo had proposed demonetisation of high value currency to the Indira Gandhi government.
“When (then Finance Minister) Y B Chavan told her about the proposals (of the Wanchoo committee) on demonetisation and his view that it should be accepted and implemented forthwith, she (Indira Gandhi) just looked at him and asked Chavan only one question: ‘Chavanji, are no more elections to be fought by the Congress party? Chavan got the message’. Tell me, is the nation big or the party for them?”
“If that work was done in 1971, the country would not have been destroyed like this. Is this how the country should have been run? All these difficulties we are facing now… because for them, the party is bigger than the country. But for us, the country is bigger than the party.”
Taking a jab at the Left for its policy about-faces, Modi said that Left parties have forgotten their basic ideology. That is why they keep changing their stand time and again, he said.
Modi also talked about his government’s push for digital India, “Digital is a process to change the way of life and economy. It will benefit everyone.”
