Demonetisation: That Manmohan Singh spoke means something's wrong, Congress says

NEW DELHI: Enthused by Manmohan Singh's scathing attack on the currency ban, Congress said the BJP government should pay heed to the former Prime Minister as he was a reluctant speaker who did not speak without grave provocation.
"Singh is famous for his sophisticated language, his soft-spokenness. He is a true Gandhian who offers the other cheek. So, his unusually harsh words today mean that something has gone terribly wrong with demonetisation.Else, he would not have used those words," leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad told reporters.
The Congress camp was pleased that a respected voice on economy like Singh tore into the Modi government, providing much needed ballast to rhetorical protests from the opposition over chaos wrought by the currency ban.
Rajya Sabha parliamentarians Jairam Ramesh and Pramod Tewari said the person who called demonetisation "organised loot and legalised plunder" was not just a former premier but someone who had served the Centre as chief economic advisor, finance secretary, finance minister, deputy chairman of Planning Commission and RBI governor.
"Singh used such words only when he was sure that what was done was wrong," Ramesh said, adding that the former PM gave expression to 50 years of economic administration.
Azad slammed the Centre for not keeping its promise that PM Narendra Modi would sit through the debate on demonetisation in Rajya Sabha, an undertaking which the LoP claimed made the opposition allow normal functioning in the upper House.
"The government made a false promise and misled the House," the senior Congress member said.