Note ban: Politicians have now become columnists, rues Arun Jaitley

NEW DELHI: Taking a dig at senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said after taking no action against blackmoney, politicians have now turned columnists, as he accused the opposition party of never having a dislike for corruption.

He also expressed disappointment at Trinamool Congress and the Left parties mounting criticism against the government's move to withdraw higher denomination Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes in a major crackdown on blackmoney, corruption and counterfeit currency.

"I am not surprised at the reaction of the Congress party. Congress party has never had a kind of dislike against corruption. In fact, they were mired mired in it when they were in power. And if I were to ask the Congress party, you were in power for last 10 years, name one step against blackmoney that you took... You probably won't find anything," Jaitley told news channel Times Now.

Terming government's decision to demonetise Rs 500/Rs 1000 notes as a "puzzle", Chidambaram had yesterday said that if the idea was to address the issue of blackmoney, why has it decided to introduce Rs 2000 denomination notes.

Jaitley said some Congress leaders who are not politicians have now become columnists.

"So when we were in power we did nothing, but now we are columnists so we will comment on whatever you are doing," he said, referring to Congress leaders.

"It is very easy to comment and start hair splitting. When you were in power and some of you got opportunity to become finance minister three times, what were the steps against blackmoney that you took. You can't recollect a single one," he added.

Jaitley said he was "disappointed" at the reaction of TMC and the Left as he had expected a different level of ethics from these parties.

"If India is trying to move away from a cash economy, the Communists should not have been unhappy. So the Communists want a free market society to deal only in cash. Well, this is not the history of the Left that I understood it to be.

"Ideally a politician like Mamata Banerjee also should be on the side of this battle against blackmoney. I would have ideally expected Mamata Banerjee and the Left to be on this side, but I am a little surprised that they have chosen to be on the other side," he said.

Leaders of regional parties like Naveen Patnaik of BJD and Nitish Kumar of JD-U have supported the government's move to ban Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes in government's fight against blackmoney, corruption and terror financing.