Continuing its attack on Prime Minister Narendra
Modi over demonetisation, the Congress on Friday said he was “not
worthy” of being trusted and accused him of being “scared” of
entering Parliament.

“He is scared of entering Parliament because he
knows he will not be able to give answers to the questions that are being
raised and will be left exposed. He should know that the country is not
changing but is actually burning because of demonetisation,” Congress
leader Kapil Sibal told media.

“In Rajya Sabha, he is silent. When he comes to
the House, he will be asked questions. If asked questions, he would be expected
to answer. If he doesn’t answer, then he will be exposed. People will realise
that the Prime Minister’s knowledge may be deficient on certain topics,”
he said.

Sibal also claimed that the ruling Bharatiya Janata
Party had the time to deposit cash and purchase land as they had all the
information about the move to demonetise the high value currencies.

“Does the Prime Minister think that all the
leaders in the opposition are black money hoarders? Then he says they are
worried because they were given no time.”

He said sarcastically, “The BJP had a lot of
time. They had all the information. They deposited cash and purchased
land.”

Sibal said according to the Reserve Bank of India
(RBI) data for 2015-16, 2,203 crore pieces of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes were
needed to be printed. Till November 18, Rs 1.03 lakh crore has been withdrawn
and Rs 33,000 crore has been exchanged, he said.

“Rs 1.3 lakh crore has been pumped into the
economy. What is the value of the currency which is demonetised, it is Rs 14
lakh crore? They have four printing presses for currency and in 2015-16, the
intent was to create 2,203 crore pieces.

“The amount printed was 2,012 crore pieces.
This is in one year, in two shifts. Based on this, the time required for the
currency notes to be printed is at least six months. RBI has said that in the
rush two variants of notes have been printed,” he said.

He also said that there are only 19 issue offices of
RBI that provide currency to banks and wondered how the banks will get all this
money in such a short period of time.

Noting that when Modi first entered Parliament, he
had called it a temple, the former Union Minister said that “now he
doesn’t care about the traditions and etiquette of Parliament”. “He
will inaugurate a book on the Constitution, yet not give the Constitution the dignity
it deserves,” he said.

He also criticised the government, saying that it
has changed the rules 172 times since November 8, the day it took the decision
on demonetisation.

Slamming Modi for “continuously evading”
Parliament, Sibal said: “It seems the Prime Minister is afraid of his own
party members otherwise why doesn’t he come to Lok Sabha where his party (BJP)
has absolute majority?

“Modi promised he would bring back Rs 80 lakh
crore black money to India. Has he fulfilled that promise? He said he’d bring
Lokpal, has he implemented it? Which promise has he fulfilled? Why should we
believe him? We have no faith in this Prime Minister. He isn’t worthy of
trust,” he added.

“The Prime Minister said the situation will
normalise in two days. Did it happen? Finance Minister (Arun Jaitley) said
situation will normalise in two weeks. Did it happen,” he asked.