Youth Congress members protest against demonetisation, detained by police

Youth Congress members accompanied by senior party leaders on Friday, November 9, staged a protest against demonetisation outside the RBI office in New Delhi and were detained by police.

The security forces forcibly took the protestors to police station in a bus.

Anand Sharma on Thursday, November 8, announced that the Congress party members would hold a nationwide protest on Friday, November 9, to mark the second anniversary of demonetisation.

"Around 70-80 Congress protesters, including Ashok Gehlot, Anand Sharma and Bhupinder Singh Hooda have been detained," police said.

The protesters wore masks and shouted slogans against the BJP-led government.

Amrish Ranjan Pandey, national spokesperson of the Youth Congress, said the protest was aimed at "highlighting the miseries of the nation since the last two years under the Modi regime".

"It is a protest against the 'failed' demonetisation of the Modi government wherein common people suffered its grave consequences," he said.

On November 8, 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced that ₹1,000 and ₹500 denomination bank notes would cease to exist as legal tenders.

The withdrawal of the notes had led to a liquidity crunch and people stood in serpentine queues outside banks and ATMs to exchange old notes.

The opposition parties have criticised the exercise as "ill-advised" and "disastrous" for the country, but the government has maintained that the move helped increase the tax base and allowed greater formalisation of the economy.

In a scathing indictment, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the "havoc" unleashed by demonetisation on the economy and society was evident to everyone and that its "deeper ramifications were still unravelling".

Calling the decision "ill-fated and ill-thought", the renowned economist asked the Modi government to refrain from any further unorthodox, short-term economic measures that could further dent the economy and financial markets.

"Today is a day to remember how economic misadventures can roil the nation for a long time," he said, asserting that the economy was yet to "recover from the demonetisation shock".

Observing that the full impact of the demonetisation was yet to be understood and experienced, Singh urged the government to restore certainty and visibility in economic policies.

with inputs from agencies)