Would have got praise if time was given: PM

“Some people are criticising saying the government did not make ample preparation. I think that is not the issue that the government did not make ample preparation. I think the pain of such people is that the government did not give a chance to make any preparation,” he said at a book launch function. “If these people had got 72 hours to make their preparation then they would have lavished praise that there is no one like Modi,” he stressed. The Prime Minister’s remarks come amid a standoff in Parliament on the issue with the opposition stepping up their attack on the government. F o r m e r Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had on Thursday said the step was “a case of organised loot and legalised plunder” and reflected a “monumental management failure”. 

Modi said the country is fighting a big battle against corruption and black money and the ordinary citizen is the ‘soldier’ in this fight. Noting that India’s name features prominently in global corruption surveys which is not something to be proud of, he said, some decisions have to be taken in the interest of the nation. The Prime Minister pointed out that civic bodies have benefited by the demonetisation move. “I got details about municipal corporations in some cities. Earlier they used to get Rs 30003500 crore tax and after November 8 they have collected Rs 13000 crore tax. This money will be used for development like construction of roads and electricity supply,” the Prime Minister said.

Proceedings in Parliament were washed out for the seventh straight day on Friday with the Opposition targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his utterances against those opposing demonetisation and demanding an apology from him for ‘wrongly accusing the opposition of holding black money’.

The government, however, rejected the demand. Members of parties like Congress, Trinamool Congress, SP, BSP and Left created uproar in the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha, taking strong objection to Modi’s comments this morning that ‘some people’ are criticising demonetisation because “the government did not give any time to them to make any preparation (to convert black money into white).”  In the Rajya Sabha, as soon as the House met for the day, BSP leader Mayawati was on her feet saying the Prime Minister had this morning ‘wrongly accused opposition of holding black money’ and demanded that he should apologise for his remarks. Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad questioned how Modi could make such allegations when it was made very clear by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and others during debate on demonetisation on Thursday that the opposition is against black money. Leader of the Opposition Azad said the Prime Minister has levelled allegations that the Opposition favoured blackmoney holders. “The Prime Minister should apologise,” the senior Congress leader said.