Former finance minister Yashwant Sinha has been one of the vocal critics of the Narendra Modi government. In his new book ‘India Unmade’ he has taken on the economic policies of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government.

Sharing his rationale for saying that demonetisation was the biggest banking scam in his new book, Sinha said currency came back via Jan Dhan accounts and the infrastructure for cheating was created well before the note ban, he said.

“If one were to look at the context in which demonetisation was done, you will recall we first came out with Jan Dhan Yojana and crores of accounts were created under the pretext of empowering the poorest of the poor by opening their bank accounts. This was in place and suddenly demonetisation came. The entire currency came back largely through Jan Dhan accounts,” he said.

Demonetisation will be a big issue in the 2019 elections, Sinha added.

On issues between Reserve Bank of India and the government, he said, “The government is prepared to destroy the autonomy that the RBI enjoys under the law of the land and force it to surrender to the wishes of the government."

First Published:Dec 24, 2018 9:21 PM IST