Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will observe ‘Anti-Black Money Day’ across India on November 8, which also marks the first anniversary of the demonetisation drive. Saying that the black money cannot be curbed through baby-steps, the Finance Minister listed efforts put forth by the Narendra Modi government in curbing black money. Taking jibe at the Congress, which had been criticising the government for poor implementation of demonetisation and the GST, the Finance Minister said that he could not recollect a single significant step taken by them against black money. “They had reconciled to India living with a shadow economy. It is understandable that this (curbing black money) would never be on political agenda of the Congress leadership,” Arun Jaitley said.
The comments came a day after several opposition parties today announced that they would observe November 8, as ‘Black Day’ and would hold protests across the country to highlight its “ill-effects” on the economy. Announcing the decision at a joint press conference of the opposition coordination committee, Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad on Tuesday 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.”