BJP MP Subramanian Swamy tweeted today that his Prime Minister’s move to scrap high-value notes has led to “huge collateral damage”

NEW DELHI: BJP MP Subramanian Swamy tweeted today that his Prime Minister’s move to scrap high-value notes has led to “huge collateral damage”.

Of course, Swamy didn’t blame PM Narendra Modi for the “damage” caused by demonetisation. His target was, as usual, finance minister Arun Jaitley for whom he has no love lost.

To be sure, the Rajya Sabha MP did say the high-value currency ban was “desirable”, but he added that the finance ministry – and by logical extension, Jaitley – messed it up with “poor contingency planning”. A “good contingency plan would have provided for (a) soft landing”, he added.
The BJP Rajya Sabha MP said that he gave one suggestion “thru a well wisher” to remedy the cash crunch situation but the finance ministry “modified it beyond recognition so that it was still profitable to go to the dalal”. He was referring to agents who are reportedly taking hefty commissions to ‘convert’ black money to white. Swami also acknowledged that black money was being “redistributed 75 to 25”.

Still, he wasn’t all doom and gloom and added that “black money can be eradicated” and demonetisation “rescued” with a “course correction.”

Essentially, Swamy’s set of tweets today amounted to another lambasting of his party colleague Jaitley, against whom he has been continuously running a negative campaign.

Last month too, Swamy blasted Jaitley for the “lack of preparation” before demonetisation was implemented. The senior BJP leader said it is Jaitley who is responsible for the long queues at ATMs and banks and not PM Modi.

In October, the BJP MP had said he was satisfied with the work done by the PM but “not satisfied with that of finance minister Arun Jaitley”.

Swamy claimed that only PM Modi knew “how he had made the finance minister do his own work.”

Bureau Report