PM Modi Says Demonetisation Should Have Been Done in 1971, Blames Congress

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi strongly defended demonetisation on the final day of the washed out winter session of Parliament and said if it had been done by Indira Gandhi in 1971 the nation would not have been where it is today.

"We needed to do it in 1971. We have caused huge losses by not doing this since 1971," Modi told the BJP's Parliamentary Board in a speech on Friday.

He also launched a scathing attack on the Congress and the opposition for not supporting the move which he said would stamp out black money in India.

The Prime Minister, referring to former bureaucrat Madhav Godbole's book, said bureaucrats and ministers had recommended demonetisation to the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who rejected the idea.

"Godbole says in the book that Gandhi replied saying ‘are no more elections to be fought by the Congress'? Chavan got the message and the recommendation was (dropped)," Modi said.

"This was in 1971 when everybody recommended this. Had it been done in 1971, the nation wouldn't have been in this situation today," Modi said.

Attacking the Congress party he said that for them the party came ahead of the nation but for the BJP the nation "came first".

Modi spoke outside Parliament on the last day of the winter session that was washed away by bedlam over the spiking of the high value currency notes which has caused an unprecedented cash shortage in the country.

The recording of the Prime Minister's speech was broadcast hours after he addressed the BJP Parliamentary Party.

He said the Congress had put the party ahead of the nation but the BJP follows "nation first" ideology.

Modi also took a dig at Leftists for opposing the government's November 8 decision to scrap 500 and 1,000 rupee notes.

"The Communists have compromised their ideology by aligning with the Congress," he sad and recalled how the late veteran Marxist Jyoti Basu had famously said that "Indira Gandhi survives on black money".

"The government (of the Congress) is of the black money, by the black money and for the black money," Modi said, referring to Basu's remarks.

(With inputs from IANS)