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Soon after the Supreme Court Constitution bench Monday upheld by 4:1 majority the decision taken by the central government six years ago to demonetise currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 denominations, politicians belonging to various outfits took to their social media accounts to share their views and opinions on the apex court verdict.
Congress leader and former union minister P Chidambaram was one of the first senior politicians to comment on the matter. “Once the Hon’ble Supreme Court has declared the law, we are obliged to accept it. However, it is necessary to point out that the majority has not upheld the wisdom of the decision; nor has the majority concluded that the stated objectives were achieved. In fact, the majority has steered clear of the question of whether the objectives were achieved at all,” he tweeted.
“We are happy that the minority judgement has pointed out the illegality and the irregularities in the demonetisation. It may be only a slap on the wrist of the government, but a welcome slap on the wrist. The dissenting judgement will rank among the famous dissents recorded in the history of the Hon’ble Supreme Court. The minority judgement brings out the profound distinction between the plenary legislative power of Parliament and the limited power of the executive government. We are happy that the minority judgment has emphasised the important role of Parliament in a democracy. We hope that in future an unbridled executive will not thrust disastrous decisions on Parliament and the people,” the former finance minister said.
Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said that the Supreme Court verdict did not mention anything on whether the stated goals of “this disastrous decision” were met or not. “The Supreme Court has only pronounced on whether Section 26(2) of RBI Act, 1934, was correctly applied or not before announcing demonetisation on November 8, 2016. Nothing more, nothing less. One honourable judge in her dissenting opinion has said that Parliament should not have been bypassed. It (the verdict) has said nothing about the impact of demonetisation which was a singularly disastrous decision. It damaged the growth momentum, crippled MSMEs, finished off the informal sector and destroyed lakhs and lakhs of livelihoods,” Ramesh said in a statement issued to the media.
“The verdict has nothing to say on whether the stated objectives of demonetisation were met or not. None of these goals — reducing currency in circulation, moving to a cashless economy, curbing counterfeit currency, ending terrorism and unearthing black money — were achieved in significant measure. The majority Supreme Court verdict deals with the limited issue of the process of decision-making and not with its outcomes. To say that demonetisation has been upheld by the honourable Supreme Court is totally misleading and wrong,” he added.
Meanwhile, launching a scathing attack on the grand old party and its former president Rahul Gandhi, Patna Sahib MP and BJP veteran Ravi Shankar Prasad asked Monday if the Wayanad MP would apologise to the nation now for his campaign against the demonetisation scheme.
“Mr Chidambaram, I condemn your comment on the majority judgment. You don’t read the judgment, you ignore with impunity the majority and pick up the minority to make an uncharitable comment. Congress is anti-poor. The biggest beneficiaries of the demonetisation have been the poor due to the digital transactions and plugging of leakages through DBT,” he added.
Senior Congress leader Pawan Khera will be addressing the media to comment on the Supreme Court verdict shortly.
Referring to the SC verdict, Thomas Isaac, former finance minister of Kerala and a central committee member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), tweeted: “SC’s majority decision that demonetisation was legal, does not make it a less Himalayan blunder that torpedoed India’s 8 per cent growth, resulted in a national GDP loss of nearly ₹15 lakh crores and horrendous suffering to the people. Those responsible shall be tried in peoples’ court.”
Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi said that she has “much respect for Justice BV Nagarathna, for standing up and speaking against demonetisation.”
Telangana’s ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), though without mentioning the term demonetisation, said in a tweet shared in Telugu soon after the verdict was out: “The lives of the people of the country are fading day after day under the rule of the BJP at the centre… India’s rank has declined in 12 indices in 2022. The year 2022 has also remained a mute witness to the failures of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rule for eight and a half years.”
BRS leader and party’s social media convenor Y Sathish Reddy shared a compilation video of various news reports on the after-effects of the centre’s move and said: “Nothing can compensate the trauma and lives lost due to this disaster #Demonetisation!”
Stating that the Centre’s decision to demonetise incentivised the honest middle class and the poor, who work hard, make an honest living and live with their heads held high, BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya said: “It penalised the corrupt, who had amassed dirty cash. Opposition batted for the latter. SC’s decision exposes them further. Defining line from Supreme Court’s judgement on demonetisation: Court cannot supplant the wisdom of the executive with its wisdom. It is a message for the opposition not to lean on the judiciary to settle political scores. The role of the executive and judiciary are clearly defined…”
BJP national general secretary (organisation) B L Santosh, meanwhile, called the apex court order a “big slap to all forces who are engaged eternally to destabilise the country and stop the momentum of development heralded by the Prime Minister and his team.”
BJP MP from Bangalore Central constituency P C Mohan dubbed the verdict as a “huge blow to Pappu and team.”
Maharashtra minister and BJP leader Chandrakant Patil termed the verdict the supreme seal and said: “The Supreme Court has now also declared that demonetisation by the central government led by Prime Minister @narendramodi was right. On demonetisation Hon. This is a slap in the face by the Supreme Court to those who want to target Modiji.”
BJP Tamil Nadu state unit chief K Annamalai stated that the Supreme Court verdict has “put to rest the speculations of armchair economists and jobless opposition, who played dirty politics fiddling over its merits in the past few years.”
“The Supreme court also observed that from the record, there was a consultative process between the central govt and the RBI for over six months before the decision was taken. This only reflects that decisions aren’t taken unilaterally, like in the times of UPA. The SC also said that the 52-day window created for exchanging old notes was not unreasonable, as cited by the petitioners. The Opposition, especially the @arivalayam party, should hang their head in shame for politicising the Demonetisation exercise,” he tweeted.
Kerala Finance Minister K N Balagopal the Supreme Court verdict only looked into its legal and technical aspects. He opined that the economic and social impact of the Centre’s decision was very serious and was detrimental to the growth of various sectors. “It ruined for some time many areas of the economy,” he told PTI. “The economic growth was affected. Many sectors’ growth was detrimentally impacted by demonetisation,” he added.
