Launching a fierce attack on the Modi government over demonetisation and Goods and Services Tax (GST), Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi charged Prime Minister Narendra Modi with not understanding the pain of the people.
Gandhi, who held a meeting with AICC general secretaries at the party headquarters to fine tune the Congress' protest on the two economic decisions of the government, said he wonders what the Modi regime would celebrate on November 8—the first anniversary of demonetisation.
"The prime minister has failed to understand the pain in the hearts of the people of this country. The PM's decision of notebandi was an out-and-out disaster. I don't know what the government will celebrate on November 8," the Congress vice president told reporters.
He said the meeting discussed the impact of demonetisation and GST on the economy of the country and added that the manner in which GST was implemented showed how a good idea could be destroyed.
Gandhi said the two economic decisions were two "big blows" to India's economy.
Quoting what Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Badal said in the meeting, Gandhi said the two decisions were like two torpedoes that Modi had shot at the economy of the country. "The economy managed to survive the first torpedo. But the second torpedo destroyed it.”
"There is massive pain in people's hearts. But the prime minister cannot feel it," he said.
The meeting was attended by former prime minister Manmohan Singh and former finance minister P. Chidambaram besides the AICC general secretaries.
The Congress plans to hold nation-wide protests on November 8 to focus on what it claims is the massive impact that demonetisation has had on the lives of people and the country's economy, calling it 'black day. The Centre, on the other hand, has decided to celebrate the day as 'anti-black money day'.
Interestingly, the protests will be held just a day ahead of assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh.
