When Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the most controversial decision of his government – demonetisation of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes on November 8, 2016, it was Telugu Desam Party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu who was in the forefront in supporting it.
In fact, Naidu went on to claim then that it was he who had suggested to Modi to ban high value currency so as to prevent black money.
He was even appointed as convenor of the committee constituted by the Centre on promoting digital economy and he went on propagating people not to indulge in cash transactions but go in for digital currency.
Now that he has come out of the NDA and has turned a bitter critic of Modi, the TDP president has taken a complete U-turn on demonetisation and digital currency.
At a press conference held at Amaravati on Monday, Naidu went hammer and tongs at Modi for miserably failing on the economic front.
Naidu wondered what Modi had achieved by going in for demonetisation.
“Every citizen of the country has suffered a lot due to demonetisation. Even now, liquid cash is not available and people are not able to draw money from ATMs,” he said.
He claimed that he had suggested banning of currency of Rs 2,000 and Rs 500 denomination and printing of more Rs 200 and Rs 100 notes so as to help the common man, besides recommending digital currency for higher transactions.
“But the NDA government had done exactly opposite to what I had suggested as the convenor of digital economy. I demand that the Modi government ban Rs 2,000 and Rs 500 notes at least now and make smaller currency available for the people,” he said.
He alleged that the economy had collapsed in the last two years of Modi regime.
“The growth rate has fallen. People have lost faith in the banks, as the non-performance assets went up abnormally. The deposits in the accounts of Swiss Banks have gone up. There is no financial discipline in the country now,” Naidu said.
