NEW DELHI, Nov 24 - After five days of confrontation, Rajya Sabha briefly saw resumed debate on demonetisation today during which former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh led the Opposition attack, saying the step was �a case of organised loot and legalised plunder� and reflected a �monumental management failure�.
He said the decision would lead to dip in the country�s GDP growth by at least 2 per cent.
As Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the Upper House, the Opposition and the ruling side came to an agreement to do away with the Question Hour and resume the debate, which had been left incomplete on November 16.
Leader of the House and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the Prime Minister will also participate in the debate.
The Opposition had been demanding presence of the Prime Minister for resumption of the debate for the last five days. Modi attended the House during Question Hour as Thursday is the day of questions listed against the PM�s name.
Debate was resumed during the Question Hour, from 12 pm to 1 pm, after which the House went into lunch break. When it met again at 2 pm, the Prime Minister was not there, prompting the Opposition parties to demand his presence again as they wanted him to listen to all the speakers.
Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien said the discussion should be carried forward as the Leader of the House has said that Prime Minister will come.
Opposition members then trooped into the Well of the House shouting slogans like �bring back black money, stop making false promises�.
Jaitley said his �apprehensions� that the Opposition did not want the debate had come true as they were looking for �excuses� to run away from the discussion.
As pandemonium prevailed, the House was adjourned till 3 pm and then for the day as the same situation existed.
Earlier, speaking during the debate, Manmohan Singh said, �These measures convinced me that the way the scheme has been implemented, it�s a monumental management failure.� � PTI
