 "Sitaram Yechury")
Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI (M)) general secretary Sitaram Yechury on Sunday termed the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government's demonetisation move as the "biggest diabolical method of money laundering" and said it had converted all black money into white.
Hitting out at the Narendra Modi-led central dispensation on the economy front, he said government's policies "have virtually ruined" the country's economy and said it did not know how to revive it and provide relief to people.
In his address after the release of a Tamil translation of compilation of his speeches in Parliament, Yechury questioned BJP's stand of zero tolerance for corruption, accusing its leaders of being involved in many scams.
He pointed out, among others, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Amit Shah's son Jay Shah's company reportedly registered manifold revenue after the party came to power in 2014.
"You have the BJP President's son involved in serious allegation that are not being investigated. You have the Sahara diaries, Panama papers, the Lalit Modi case, Vyapam case, Land scam case in Bihar," he said, adding there was no investigation into these.
However, opposition leaders were being targeted for various corruption charges even "if there was a case or not," he said.
"The worst corruption that has taken place in the country is demonetisation. This has been the biggest diabolical method of money laundering that has been undertaken in independent India. Today all the money that was demonetised has come back " he said.
The government, he said, had "no idea of what they are doing, but what they have done is converted all black money into white."
"They have legalised all illicit money. They have neither been able to reduce terrorist attacks... in fact they have doubled," the former Rajya Sabha MP said.
The economy has been ruined to "favour" certain corporate companies, Yechury alleged.
To divert attention from such issues, "communal divide" was being created and "sadly Taj Mahal has become an issue now," he said in reference to the controversy surrounding the Mughal-era monument in Agra.
He also referred to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adithyanath raising the issue of construction of Ram temple.
Further, moral policing squads were telling youngsters "what to eat and whom to befriend," Yechury rued.
