“Shrewd Modi” Got Carried Away With Currency Ban: Arun Shourie

Shourie wondered why the govt had not anticipated the impact of doing “away with 85 percent of Indian currency.”

Former cabinet minister and senior member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Arun Shourie. (Photo: Reuters)

Arun Shourie, who was a union minister in the BJP-led government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, has strongly criticised the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes, saying that the move lacked thought and expertise.

In an exclusive interview to NDTV, the former Disinvestment Minister, Arun Shourie asked why the government had not anticipated the repercussions of doing “away with 85 percent of Indian currency”, if the move had indeed been planned over nine months.

People who hold this black money or black assets don’t hold it in cash...they are not going to put their money under the mattress...they are holding it abroad, and there also, they are not dollars in gunnybags. It is property, jewellery, maybe other assets which we don’t know about, maybe stock markets.

Calling Prime Minister Narendra Modi “shrewd”, Shourie (who has been vocally critical of Modi) said that the government is banking on creating a general moral sentiment.

“Of course there is support because of the general impression, they don’t think consequences. By the time (people realise the consequences) some other surgical strikes may happen. People may go by the gross message but, in reality, that is not what happened.” He also went on to add that the BJP government was “being carried away with the idea of doing something.”

Responding to Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, who had claimed that stone pelting has gone down after the currency ban, Shourie remarked,

In nine days it has happened, is it? Stone pelting demonstrations have come down gradually over a period of time. This is typical of the government; they see any sparrow and say, I have shot it down.

Quoting analysts like Neelkanth Mishra, the senior member of BJP said, that unlike the 50 days that Modi has promised, it will take the economy at least 12-15 months to readjust itself, and even after that “many uncertainties will have to be reckoned with” he warned, mentioning the realignment that will come with the implementation of GST.

He slammed the government for lacking a strict and fair security enforcement.

Then you will be acting against the bribe taker and bribe giver. But if you let disproportionate assets cases fall through because you don’t present evidence... for instance, you are doing nothing on the Vyapam scam, nothing on the Sarada scam, the Narada scam, you let Hasan Ali go, Moin Qureshi goes away, Vijay Mallya is saying bye bye, Lalit Modi keeps sitting outside...then what will the officer think?

(Source: NDTV)