Manmohan Singh says demonetisation will have severe economic ramifications, a mammoth tragedy

Dr Manmohan Singh feels that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s demonetisation scheme is a "travesty of his fundamental duty" and has lowered the confidence of more than a billion Indians to nil.

Dr Singh, in critique published in The Hindu newspaper-"Making of a Mammoth Tragedy" – predicts a bad affect on GDP and jobs, and a tough period over the coming months, "needlessly so".

He also write that this scheme would lead to "grievous injury" to the honest Indian and the dishonest black money hoarder will get away with a "mere rap on the knuckles."

Earlier, Dr Singh said in parliament that the impact of the ban on high-denomination notes as "organised loot, legalised plunder". Now, his article elaborates on that view.

"In one impetuous decision, the Prime Minister has shattered the faith and confidence that hundreds of millions of Indians had reposed in the Government of India to protect them and their money," he writes.

"It is now evident that this sudden overnight ban on currency has dented the confidence of hundreds of millions of Indian consumers, which can have severe economic ramifications. The scars of an overnight depletion of the honest wealth of a vast majority of Indians combined with their ordeal of rationed access to new currency will be too deep to heal quickly."

Taking a dig at the government, he says: "It may be tempting and self-fulfilling to believe that one has all the solutions and previous governments were merely lackadaisical in their attempts to curb black money. It is not so."

He also describes what he feels about the note ban- checking tax evasion and fake money used by terrorists - as honourable and worthy of whole-hearted support. But, he points out, more than 90 per cent of India's workforce still earns wages in cash and more than 600 million Indians live in a town or village with no bank, who save their money in bigger notes.

"To tarnish these as 'black money' and throw the lives of these hundreds of millions of poor people in disarray is a mammoth tragedy," he writes.