New Delhi:
Former Disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie on Thursday criticised the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision and implementation of demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes.
Shorie, who was part of Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s cabinet, said that while the stated objective of currency overhaul may be good, the idea was not well thought out.
In an interview to NDTV, he confessed that the policy move is bold and radical, but added, "jumping in the well is also very radical, committing suicide is also radical...if you want to make a beginning, make a beginning on reforming the tax administration."
Shourie, who has been critical of PM Modi in the past, said he did not think the cash clean-up would get to the heart of the black or untaxed money problem.
"People who hold this black money or black assets don't hold it in cash...they are not going to put their money under the mattress...they are holding it abroad, and there also they are not dollars, in gunnybags. It is property, jewelry, maybe other assets which we don't know about, maybe stock markets," he said.
According to him, instead of such radical decisions, a strict and fair law enforcement is the need of the hour.
"Then you will be acting against the bribe taker and bribe giver. But if you let disproportionate assets cases fall through because you don't present evidence, you are doing nothing on the Vyapam scam, you are doing nothing on the Sarada scam, the Narada scam, you let Hasan Ali go, nothing happened, Moin Qureshi goes away, Vijay Mallya is saying bye bye, Lalit Modi keeps sitting outside, then what will the officer think?"
