Rs 1,000 note ban was like seeing my child killed, says former FM Sinha

New Delhi:Former finance minister Yashwant Sinha has said when Rs 1,000 currency note was demonetised he felt like his child had been killed.
Speaking at the launch of Prof Arun Kumar’s ‘Demonetisation and the Black Economy’, the first comprehensive book on the impact of demonetisation in India, Sinha on Monday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s November 8, 2016 move had failed comprehensively to meet any of the state objectives of purging the economy of black money, ending terrorism and ending corruption.
The launch happened at the Press Club of India here.
“Seventeen months down the line we can conclude that demonetisation as an economic measure has failed comprehensively. The success of a move is judged in context of its goals. The PM had said that the move was meant to fight corruption, black money, fake notes and terrorism. Not a single objective has been met,” Sinha said.
Recalling that since after the demonetisation of 1978, he as Finance Minister was the one to bring back Rs 1,000 notes, “I felt like my child had been killed when the Rs 1,000 notes were demonetised.”
The launch of the book was attended by former Maharashtra chmef Minister Prithvi Raj Chavan, MP Baijayanta Panda, Prof Deepak Nayyar, Sidhartha Vardarajan and Rajdeep Sardesai.
All participants agreed that the note ban was an economically retrograde step looking back, with Sinha pointing to the rise in tax terrorism.
“Tax terrorism has come back as 1.8 million cases have been launched by the Income Tax department,” BJP leader Sinha said.
The book examines in depth how effective demonetisation was in tackling black money, was secrecy around it necessary, what was the nature of shock to the economy and was the decision motivated by a desire to reap electoral benefits, among other questions.
The book has been published by Penguin Random House.