Mumbai: Congress seeks judicial probe into demonetisation

Watch What Else Is Making News 

Sibal rebutted the BJP’s pitch that demonetisation would cleanse the system of black money. “How can we say black money has vanished when there are people who have collected 30 per cent commission for injecting money (black money) into banks,” he questioned.

Attacking PM Narendra Modi, Sibal alleged, “The PM does not want us (people) to know the answer to who was behind all this, but the Congress will continue seeking such answers. The Reserve Bank of India, too, does not answer how much money has come back so far.”

Sibal fired another salvo by alleging that independent directors of the Reserve Bank of India were not present for the meeting when the RBI adopted the demonetisation decision. “Through a Right to Information (RTI) query, we had asked them (the RBI) the names of the board of directors who were present for the meeting. The RBI, in its reply, indicated that eight out of the 21 directors were present. The list shows that those present were government officials. Not a single independent director of the RBI was present when the decision was taken.”

He also questioned what action had the BJP taken on their leaders found with bundles of new notes post demonetisation.

Former Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, who heads Congress’s campaign committee against demonetisation in Maharashtra, also fired a barb at Modi. “The Prime Minister, while seeking 50 days time to end the pain due to demonetisation, had said people could hang him in public thereafter. Today we (the Congress committee) held discussions on whether such hanging should be held in Maharashtra or Gujarat,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Congress committee, which included a couple of AICC office-bearers, deliberated on how to mobilise public support against demonetisation. On Tuesday, Mumbai Congress president Sanjay Nirupam led a protest march against demonetisation to the suburban collector’s office in Bandra.