Reacting to the decision to withdraw the Rs 2000 currency note, former Union Minister for Finance P Chidambaram said that the Union government has taken seven years to rectify the mistake it had made. He also added that he was happy that the government had finally taken the decision to withdraw the notes. The former minister was speaking to reporters at Karaikudi in Tamil Nadu on Sunday, May 21.
Chidambaram added that he expected the Union government to reintroduce the Rs 1000 currency note in the market and added that withdrawing both the Rs 1000 and Rs 500 currency notes were a grave mistake, one that had not been accepted by the people of the country.
He also said that the Opposition had at the time vehemently opposed the introduction of Rs 2000 notes in the market. He further recalled that the Union government had then claimed that the black money was in circulation in the denominations of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 and hence withdrew those currency notes and introduced the new Rs 2000 notes which was not only a mistake but a hasty move. Chidambaram also alleged that the move had confused the public.
Further, the senior Congress leader said that the Union government was now a “Tughlak Darbar”, mocking the move of reintroducing Rs 500 denominations and withdrawing the newly introduced Rs 2000 currency notes.