New Delhi: In a major move to wrest the initiative from the opposition, the NDA government will observe November 8, the one-year anniversary of Demonetisation, as ‘Anti Black Money’ day.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, in a press conference on Wednesday, said that union and state ministers of the BJP, as well as the functionaries, will fan out across the country to highlight the steps that the government has taken to tackle black money. The intervening period until November 8 will also witness preparations for the day.
The move is part of the ruling party’s efforts to seize the day from the opposition, which has vowed to observe the one-year anniversary of the cash ban as a ‘black day’. The opposition parties plan to highlight the ‘failures’ of the government in the aftermath of a shocking decision to invalidate 86% of cash, announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year.
In the past 2-3 months, the cumulative effects of the cash ban and the disruption caused by the Goods and Services Tax, have been termed as consecutive shocks to the economy, responsible for slowing economic growth and evaporation of jobs, especially in the informal sector.
November 8, thus, becomes crucial for both the government and the opposition, for completely different reasons. The government will want to highlight the steps it has taken to combat the shadow economy, while the opposition will want to pin the blame on the government for the failures, ahead of crucial elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh.
Jaitley said that the UPA government did nothing to tackle illicit cash because “it was never on their political agenda”. He said the Supreme Court-mandated Special Investigative Team on black money was constituted by the Modi government after the UPA ignored it for 3 years.
Jaitley also highlighted other steps that the government took to combat the shadow economy, namely, amending the double taxation avoidance agreements with Mauritius and Cyprus to prevent round-tripping of black money, coordinating with other sovereign governments, especially those with secretive banking systems, to get real-time information on black money account holders, and the drive to reduce the cash to currency ratio.
Jaitley also slammed the Congress over its criticism of the Election Commission for the delay in the announcement of dates for the Gujarat elections.
The government’s announcement comes just a day after opposition parties said they will observe November 8 as ‘black day’.
Announcing the decision at a joint press conference of the opposition coordination committee, Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad said, "This particular announcement made on November 8 is the scam of the century, which is why we are observing this as Black Day."
He described the note-ban decision as the NDA government's "most ill-conceived and hasty decision".
"One can say this is a scam of the century. Eighteen political parties have decided to hold protests in every state in their capacity against the government's decision which caused hardship to the people. Never ever in the world people have died because of a government policy," Azad said.
Azad, flanked by Sharad Yadav of the breakaway faction of the JD-U and TMC leader Derek O'Brien, said, "Each political party will try to give a regional name to observe this as a 'Black Day' and will hold protests and processions."
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