Robert Vadra has criticised the Modi government for the implementation of the demonetisation drive, weighing in on the debate.
Vadra took to social networking site Facebook to make his displeasure about the ongoing economic exercise known, asking his followers if they thought that the entire nation was suffering just due to “one man’s ego”.
(Source: Robert Vadra’s Facebook page)
Vadra, the son-in-law of Congress president Sonia Gandhi and member of arguably the most powerful political family in India, noted that the objectives of the currency ban exercise had changed over time, from cleaning up ‘black money’ and combating terrorism originally to go ‘cashless’ now.
He lamented that long queues outside ATMs hadn’t subsided yet, despite the country being more than a month into the unprecedented financial experiment intended to shake up the cash-reliant Indian economy.
The attack by Vadra comes a day after his brother-in-law and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had been involved in financial fraud in the past. But Gandhi wouldn’t disclose more about his allegations, prompting his critics to think that his charges might merely be a load of hot air.
Investigators from the CBI had also reported to court yesterday about having made significant headway into a corruption case, that involved procurement of helicopters for the Indian military, which features the name of previous Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for allegedly bending rules to award the contract to an Italian company. Singh and his Congress party have denied the allegations.
Vadra, who has interests in real estate, in the past has been accused of using his contacts with the Congress party leadership to manipulate land prices to benefit him personally.
While Vadra’s financial history appears a bit dodgy, his remarks on demonetisation may strike a chord with a few sections of the Indian public who are going through turbulent times due to severe cash crunch that scrapping of old notes has brought upon the economy.
A recent survey found that support for demonetisation in cities had dropped to 39 percent, from 51 percent barely a month ago.
