'Biggest scam of this century': Two sizes of Rs.500 notes?
What's the story
The "biggest scam of this century" rocked the Parliament today as the opposition alleged that the new Rs. 500 notes were being printed in two sizes, "one for the ruling party and one for the others". Supported by TMC, SP and JD(U), the Congress launched a barrage of attacks on BJP members, alleging they had "today discovered the reason why the government did demonetization".
Allegations
New BJP ally JD(U) backs opposition charge in parliament
TMC's Derek O'Brien, SP's Naresh Agrawal and JD(U)'s Sharad Yadav displayed copies of notes of allegedly different sizes. "I can give signed (copies of notes)," Yadav said. Congress' Anand Sharma said this questioned the credibility of the currency in circulation. Amid slogan-shouting members, Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nazi Azad said, "The government has no right to remain in office for even five minutes."
Reax
Slight variation in design and sizes possible, Jaitley says
According to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, the opposition was indulging in "misuse of Zero Hour" by "raising frivolous issues without giving notice". Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad asked where they had got the differently-sized notes from. Jaitley assured he would look into the matter. "Given such a big print run, there can be an odd case of a note being slightly bigger."