Anand Sharma dares Modi over benami property charge

Tribune News Service

Shimla, November 8

Senior Congress leader Anand Sharma today dared Prime Minister Narendra Modi to issue the list of Congress leaders who had benami properties and register FIRs against them rather than levelling allegations to get political mileage.

Addressing a press conference here he said the Congress would observe November 8 as black day even if the BJP was leaving no stone unturned to justify its action.

“I challenge Modi to issue the list of Congress leaders owning properties in the name of their staff, drivers or any other person, as alleged by him, within 24 hours. He has no business defaming the Congress leadership,” said Sharma. He regretted that the PM believed only in sermonising as he had been a prachark for a very long time.

He sought an apology from the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister for those 143 persons who died while standing in bank queues and for wrecking the economy with 2 per cent decline in the GDP growth and a loss of 12 crore jobs. “The Finance Minister was misleading the public by making factually wrong statements that digital transactions had increased, but the fact is that it was only for a short period when cash was in shortage,” he said.

Sharma said, “No nation is and will become totally cashless as we in India have 96 per cent cash transactions. “Demonetisation can at best be described as a Modi-made disaster and the sufferings of the poor are only going to multiply as the aftershocks are still being felt,” he remarked. He also took serious objection to the economy being maligned globally by the BJP’s claims that the country was running on black money.

Sharma said it was very unfortunate that the BJP was misleading the public without disclosing the actual black money post demonetisation.