PM Narendra Modi Won’t Be Called, Says Parliament Panel Overruling Congress Chief

Prime Minister Narendra Modi cannot be asked to explain his decision to ban high-denomination notes to the parliamentarians on a committee examining the sudden demonetisation drive, its members decided today, overruling what the chairman of the panel said just days ago.

KV Thomas of the opposition Congress is Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament. On Monday, he said that PM Modi could be ordered to meet the panel to outline the process that led to high-denomination notes being cancelled at just a few hours’ notice on November 8. Whether that happens, he said, will depend on the details disclosed by RBI Governor Urjit Patel, who has been summoned by the committee on January 20.

Mr Patel will have to defend the RBI’s role in the abolition of notes that collectively formed 86 per cent of the notes in circulation. A written explanation sent to the committee and accessed by NDTV states that it was the government that “advised” the RBI to cancel the notes, which was approved by the central bank’s board just a day later. 24 hours after that, PM Modi announced the currency was invalid.