New Delhi, Jan 2 (IANS): BJP leader and former Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad slammed the Congress and its leader Rahul Gandhi for questioning and criticising the Centre's decision on demonetisation, and said the Congress in its own way "promoted and protected informal economy elements" in the country.

Addressing a press conference here on Monday, Prasad said, "The Supreme Court by a majority judgement found the entire demonetisation process to be fair. Congress raised this issue again and again even when Rahul Gandhi went abroad he raised this issue. This was very unfortunate.

"In October 2022 India recorded a great harvest of digital transactions worth Rs 12 lakh crore. India has become a pioneer in terms of digital payment, so many new apps have come even the poor are also using digital payments, this happened post-demonetisation Digital payments were encouraged by the government post-demonetisation", he added.

Mentioning the past of Kashmir, he said, "Stone pelting has come to a halt in Kashmir, bank accounts of PFI were frozen. Demonetisation has done a great service in breaking the back of terror financing. This has been the biggest blow to terrorism."

While slamming the Congress, he said "We know what they said about Rafale but when the SC judgement came they all became silent. Today I want to say with full responsibility that the Congress party in its own way promoted and protected informal economy elements in the country."

The BJP leader further said, "I want to ask Rahul Gandhi one question - whether you will say sorry to the country? You led a campaign throughout the country against demonetisation.. will you apologise now? I want to say something about P. Chidambaram and other Congress leaders are silent about the majority judgement but they are speaking about the minority judgement. Chidambaram you are silent on majority judgement but for minority you say we got slapped in at least on wrist..."