Was demonetization not intended to curb all black money?: Jairam Ramesh asks PM Modi

New Delhi [India], May 19 (ANI): Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh on Sunday accused the BJP of "misusing" the central agencies against opposition leaders and also slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his 'Ambani-Adani' remark and questioned whether demonetization was not successful in curbing black money.
"The way ED, CBI and I-T are being misused by the Modi government, this has never happened before. PM Modi made the ED arrest Hemant Soren and Arvind Kejriwal and put them in jail. PM Modi himself says that Adani and Ambani took black money in tempo to the Congress office, so why is ED not initiating a probe against them? What happened to demonetization? Was it not intended to curb all the black money?" Ramesh said.
The Congress leader's statement comes after Prime Minister Modi attacked Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, questioning the party's "sudden silence" on Adani and Ambani, and questioned if the party has received a huge amount of "black money" from the industrialists.
Regarding Jammu and Kashmir, the Rajya Sabha Congress MP stressed that statehood should be restored in the erstwhile state and assembly elections should also be conducted there.
"J-K should be given state status back, as the Supreme Court has said, assembly elections should take place there. It has never happened in the political history of our country that a state is turned into a UT. In our history, UT has become a state, not the other way around. This is the first time. On August 5, 2019, Ladakh was separated, that's fine, but J-K was downgraded to a UT," he added.
On being asked about the alleged assault case of Aam Aadmi Party MP Swati Maliwal, Jairam Ramesh said that the BJP wants to "divert" Congress' attention from real issues.
"For us, this election is for the farmers, women, and youth. These are all the issues. The BJP wants the Congress party to say something to divert attention from these issues. If something has happened, it is necessary to have a proper and impartial investigation. It should not be politicised," Ramesh further said.
He also stressed the need of conducting caste census and questioned BJP's stand on the issue.
Notably, social, economic and caste census was conducted under the UPA regime in 2011, but the data was not made public.
Speaking to ANI, Jairam Ramesh said, "We have said that it is very important to conduct caste census. When Manmohan Singh was the Prime Minister in 2011, social, economic and caste census was conducted. But, the information obtained regarding caste was not published. Modi government never published it. Even today the Modi government has not clarified its position whether it is in favour of social, economic and census or not."
"The Supreme Court had ruled in 1992 that reservation can't be more than 50 per cent. We have said that we will increase the limit of 50 per cent. Our question to the Prime Minister is whether you will increase this 50 per cent limit or not? Will you get the caste census conducted or not?" he added.
The Congress party, in its election manifesto, has promised to remove the 50 per cent cap on reservations. (ANI)