New Delhi :
On the first anniversary of demonetisation, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday launched a scathing attack on demonetisation and Goods and Services Tax (GST) and termed Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a ‘democratically elected dictator.’
In an article published in The Financial Times Rahul Gandhi said that PM Modi had claimed that his decision to ban high currency notes was aimed at checking corruption, instead, the past 12 months have only witnessed the downfall of the otherwise flourishing economy of the country.
"The prime minister claimed his decision was aimed at wiping out corruption. Twelve months on the only thing he has wiped out is confidence in our once-booming economy," he said in the article.
Gandhi came down heavily on the hurried implementation of GST. He termed the tax reform as bureaucratic and complex. "It has devastated livelihoods, creating a modern-day Licence Raj,” said Gandhi.
He further said that demonetisation has brought down the GDP by 2 percent and destroyed the informal labour sector and many SMEs. Gandhi said, "It has ruined the lives of millions of hard-working Indians."
The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy has calculated that over 15 lakh people lost their jobs in the first four months of 2017 due to demonetisation.
"Anger might have brought Mr Modi to power but it will never create jobs or fix India’s institutions," he concluded.
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