india

Updated: Dec 08, 2016 00:37 IST

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Wednesday that the Narendra Modi government’s demonetisation move was a scam worth Rs 8 lakh crore, done to write off bad loans worth this amount.

“There is a different reason and intention behind it. What was the real reason behind demonetisation. According to the data available, the banks had stressed assets of Rs 8 lakh crore. The big companies, industrialists, and the rich had taken loans from banks.”

“Out of these loans, at least Rs 8 lakh crore has been misappropriated. CAG report had said that 50% of it had gone abroad and the rest was taken by fraud and is not going to come back,” said Kejriwal at the Aaj Tak conclave.

He further said: “So they (the government) are getting it back by making people stand in queues. First, they informed the BJP people about the demonetisation move. They deposited all their money, purchased lands.”

“The government has claimed that already Rs 12 lakh crore has come back after the demonetisation move. This was done so that the money which comes back through the demonetisation move could be used to write off bad loans and Non-Performing Assets (NPAs) worth Rs 8 lakh crore,” added Kejriwal.

He also said that through this move, black money holders have not been affected.

“The black money is there, terrorists already have Rs 2,000 notes. BJP people have the highest number of fake notes,” said Kejriwal.

“If they had to fight corruption and black money, they should have caught the big fish in politics. Why haven’t they caught Robert Vadra yet? They came to power promising that they will put him in jail. But they didn’t,” he added.

He further said: “At least catch those who are looting the nation. There is a list of 648 black money holders? Why aren’t they taking action against them. But the intention was different.”

On Anna Hazare supporting demonetisation, Kejriwal said: “We’ll talk to Anna. He has not been explained properly..We’ll explain him. I’ll talk to him.”

Asked what he would have done had he been the Prime Minister, he said: “We did it in the 49 days of our rule in Delhi. Corruption was totally brought under control. 32 corrupt officials were put in jail in one month.”

To a question that Lt. Governor Najeeb Jung had said that there are scams under AAP government as well, Kejriwal said: “Let him do a case against us. People can say anything about us, but no one, even our adversaries have not levelled charges of corruption against us.”

Jung doesn’t have any power to check AAP government’s files, Kejriwal said, questioning if the LG is “our headmaster or principal”. He also sought to know who has given L-G the power to check files pertaining to his government’s work, saying that only people have this right and they can even throw him out of power.

Last month, the Shangulu Committee formed by the L-G to examine 400 files pertaining to the AAP government’s decisions, had submitted its report to Jung’s office.

Sources said the committee has “pointed out violations of rules” by the AAP government in making several decisions.

(With inputs from PTI)