NEW DELHI: Terming the Modi government as the world's "most anti-intellectual" for questioning experts on GDP figures, former Finance Minister P Chidambaram today said the economy will take 12-18 months to recover from the "devastating" impact of demonetisation "It (the government) even thinks that Amartya Sen , professor at Harvard is undeserving of any respect. It thinks that Oxford , Cambridge, Harvard are all useless," he said.Speaking at a seminar on "Untold Stories of Demonetisation - Its impact on Indian Economy ", organised by AICC, the senior Congress leader was critical of the government's criticism of noted economists like Nobel laureate Amartya Sen for questioning government's growth data post- demonetisation."We have the most anti-intellectual government in the world," he said.Citing government data, he said going by the Gross Value Addition (GVA) figures it is clear that the economy has slowed down and the Q4 data of national income will further confirm that the economy has been hit "very very badly" by note ban."It is clear from government's GVA data that the economy is in a clear declining trend... It is important that we understand that the devastating effect of demonetisation has interrupted India's economy story. It was an unnecessary interruption."To recover from this interruption, in my assessment, it will take between 12 and 18 months to recover. So you will see this impact into 2017-18 and may be right up to the end of 2017-18," Chidamabaram said.Giving out quarter-wise GVAs of three years, Chidambaram said: "In 2014-15, quarter-wise GVAs were 7.26, 7.91, 6.29 and 6.19 per cent. There is no particular trend. It went up and came down. In 2015-16, the numbers are 7.75, 8.44, 6.95 and 7.42 per cent. Again it doesn't show any trend."The three quarters of 2016-17 show it was 6.90, 6.69 and 6.61 per cent. It is a clear declining trend. Demonetisation took place almost bang in the middle of the third quarter. The Q-4 number will tell us whether the declining trend is continuing or it is in fine fettle," said Chidambaram."But, even these numbers hide something. Demonetisation did not affect three sectors. It did not affect government expenditure, agricultural production and utilities (example: electricity bills, municipality bills). The real way to look at GVA is to look at the net of government expenditure, agricultural production and utilities," he added.He said demonetisation was done not on recommendation of the Reserve Bank of India to the government but on the "diktat" of Government of India to RBI."Every procedure and every norm was violated in taking this decision and announcing it," he said."On November 7, the government wrote to the RBI nudging RBI to approve of demonetisation. Next day RBI board was summoned at short notice. Only two independent directors attended the meeting and in half-an-hour, the RBI board wrapped up its discussion and obediently recommended to the government that currency should be demonetised," said Chidambaram."RBI was asked if there was an agenda note or background paper or research note that weighed and explained the pros and cons of demonetisation. RBI has refused to give any answer or make public any document. In fact there was no document."We asked about cabinet note, the answer was a deafening silence. Every norm and procedures were violated in taking the decision," Chidambaram added.He also said that the objectives behind demonetisation like curbing black money, corruption and counterfeit currency, have not been achieved and the move has been a failure.(Source - PTI, IANS)