Former Union Minister Arun Shourie today mocked the claim of demonetisation of high-value currencies being a radical measure, stating that jumping into well or committing suicide is also radical.
He told NDTV, “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.”
Everybody will say it is a wonderful move going by its stated objective which is to strike at black money but it was not a “thought-through” exercise, said the former BJP leader who has often flayed the Modi government’s policies.
“This is a strike not on black money but on legal tender of India, its currency. This is a strike on cash transactions,” he said.
Shourie, who held key portfolio in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, said, “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.”