TIL Desk/National/Mumbai/ The Shiv Sena on Friday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government for the debated failure of demonetisation, and made a wry comment that the expense incurred on the printing of new notes was merely a drain of funds for the purpose of fame and advertising.
The scathing attack was published in the Sena’s mouthpiece, Saamana, and came close on the heels of the RBI’s demonetisation report, which revealed that 99 per cent of old Rs 500, and Rs 1000 notes were returned to the banking system.
It claimed that the one per cent bank notes that didn’t return to the banking system were probably not black money, as generally the middle class didn’t deposit the money, because either they got tired standing in the queues at banks or were simply ignorant. It also added that people who actually possessed, far from getting caught, didn’t even get affected by it.
“In fact, most of the black money was invested in the real estate of cities like Mumbai. It need not be named who were the affluent lot,” it added. It also pointed that while Rs. 26,000 crore were not returned to the banking system, an additional Rs. 21,000 crore was “drained away” on the printing of new notes.”Thus, Rs. 21,000 crore were drained away in the ‘wisdom account’ of fame and advertising,” mocked the editorial.
