Slamming the government over its 2016 demonetisation move, the Congress on Saturday said that as the nation marks the "obituary" of the 2000 rupee note, let it be a reminder of the "monumental disaster" that the "Tughlakian decision" was.

The Congress' attack came as the Reserve Bank of India's special drive to withdraw Rs 2,000 bank notes from the system ended Saturday.

In a post on X, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said, "As the nation marks the obituary of the 2000 rupee note, let it be a reminder of the monumental disaster that was the Tughlakian decision of November 8, 2016." Those who questioned the logic back then including Rahul Gandhi were mocked by the "drum-beaters of the self-appointed Vishwaguru", Ramesh said.

Some even claimed micro-chip enabled notes to help track black money, he said.

"Now, after blowing thousands of crores of taxpayers' money in a futile exercise and destroying lakhs of micro and small businesses across the country, the Modi government will move onto managing the next headline," Ramesh said.

He also tagged former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi's post on demonetization from 2016 in which he had said, "One Q for the PM: How is replacing 1000 rs notes with 2000 rs notes going to make black money hoarding a lot harder? #Modilogic" The Reserve Bank last Saturday had extended the special drive to withdraw Rs 2,000 bank notes from the system by another week, till October 7.

The central bank had said ever since it announced the move to withdraw Rs 2,000 notes on May 19, Rs 3.42 lakh crore of such notes have been received into the system either by deposition into bank accounts or exchanging, from the public.

The currency returned is 96 per cent of the Rs 2,000 bank notes in circulation as on May 19, the Reserve Bank had said in a statement, adding only Rs 14,000 crore of such notes are in circulation now.

Earlier, the deadline to deposit/exchange Rs 2,000 notes was September 30, 2023.

In a surprise move, it had announced withdrawal of Rs 2,000 notes in May, but maintained that it was not akin to the demonetisation carried out in November 2016 when Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes were made illegal tender overnight.

The RBI has said the Rs 2,000 notes shall continue to be legal tender even beyond October 7, but asked the public to deposit or exchange the notes without any further delay.

From October 8, the deposit/exchange facilities at bank branches will be stopped, and people will have to get them exchanged at 19 offices of RBI, the statement had said.

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