ECI takes note of alleged MCC violations by Modi, Rahul Gandhi
The poll panel forwarded the complaints to BJP President JP Nadda and Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge seeking their response by 11 am on April 29.
Rahul Gandhi attacked the Modi government over demonetisation on Saturday during the fourth phase of Jana Aashirwada Yatre in Karnataka.
Addressing students at Maharani’s Arts College in Mysuru, the Congress president said that he called up both former finance minister P Chidambaram and former prime minister Manmohan Singh when PM Modi announced demonetisation.
“Chidambaram was laughing when I asked about demonetisation. He said ‘I cannot imagine how the BJP has carried out this’. He said ‘this is insane’,” Gandhi told the students when asked about his view on demonetisation.
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Gandhi said that Manmohan Singh did not respond for 20 seconds.
“When I asked him what happened, Singh told me that he is recovering from the shock,” he added.
He claimed that there is not a single economic expert in the world who will say that demonetisation helped Indian economy.
When pointed out that the exercise, which was announced on 8 November 2016, helped bring back some black money, the Congress chief claimed that it actually helped “those with black money to convert it to white”.
“Around 90 per cent of black money is in real estate, gold and Swiss bank accounts,” he said, adding, “Only a small portion is in cash.”
Gandhi said that the Congress philosophy is that there is no need for experiments on a country the size of India’s and ideas should be tested before implementation.
He said that demonetisation was badly conceived and extremely damaging step for the Indian economy.
“It was actually a disaster; not a sound economic policy,” Gandhi told the gathering.
Before addressing the students, Gandhi sought blessings of the presiding deity at the Chamundeshwari Temple in the city.
Karnataka will head to polls in April/May.
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