Sanjay Raut: Demonetisation was 'economic terrorism', thousands died in bank queues, who is responsible?

Mumbai: Shiv Sena Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray camp MP Sanjay Raut has called demonetisation 'economic terrorism'. Raising questions over the Centre's decision, he asked who should be held responsible for the death of thousands of people who died in bank queues during demonetisation. Slamming the government's implementation of the exercise he went on to say that he agrees with Justice Nagarathna who termed demonetisation illegal.

While speaking to the media Sanjay Raut said, "Thousands of people died in bank queues during demonetisation, who is responsible for them? It was economic terrorism in a way that was brought into the country. We agree with Justice Nagarathna who termed it illegal. But still we salute the court."

The 2016 announcement

On November 8, 2016, Prime minister Narendra Modi announced the decision to demonetise higher denomination currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000.

The Supreme Court verdict

The top court recently completed its hearing on the historic note ban. In a big win for the Modi government, the Supreme Court in a 4:1 verdict held that demonetisation is not bad in law merely because some citizens suffered through hardships. The decision does not suffer from illegality as there was consultation between the RBI and the Centre for a period of six months before the notification under challenge was issued, it said.

It stated that the decision-making process was neither flawed nor hasty and it is "not relevant" whether the stated objectives were achieved or not.