The Bharatiya Janata Party will observe an “Anti-Black Money Day” on November 8, on the one-year mark of the Centre’s demonetisation drive. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday said all major leaders of the BJP as well as Union ministers will participates in programmes countrywide to highlight the steps taken to tackle black money.
“We cannot fight black money by taking baby steps,” he said on the government’s sudden decision to declare Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes invalid. “We aimed to make India an anti-corruption nation.”
The finance minister made the announcement at the BJP’s headquarters in New Delhi.
Opposition’s ‘Black Day’
The move was announced a day after the Opposition said it will observe November 8 as a “Black Day” in protest against the government’s demonetisation exercise. “Demonetisation was an ill-conceived and hasty decision,” Congress leader Ghulab Nabi Azad said. “It is unprecedented – perhaps in the entire world – that a government had to alter its policy 135 times within a month.”
On Wednesday, Jaitley said the Congress had “inadequate understanding” of the demonetisation agenda. “The Congress had adequate opportunity to be in power, and I cannot recollect a single significant step they ever took against black money,” he said. “They had reconciled to India living with a shadow economy. It is understandable that demonetisation would never be on the political agenda of the Congress leadership.”
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