New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday defended the move, saying it had reduced corruption and increased transparency. Four years after he announced a surprise decision to replace nearly 86 per cent of all of India’s cash sending shockwaves through the economy.

PM Modi had announced the decision to ban ₹ 500 and ₹ 1,000 notes from midnight, on November 8, 2016, with four hours’ notice. In a famous speech, he asked people to bear the pain for 50 days and if the situation did not improve, he said, he was ready for “any punishment”.

On the fourth anniversary of the decision on Sunday, PM Modi tweeted, initially billed as a silver bullet to eliminate everything from ill-gotten wealth to terrorism, demonetization has been widely seen by economists as a major blunder.

The government, however, has stubbornly defended the move even in the face of scorching opposition criticism. The ruling BJP on Sunday said demonetization was an “attack” on corruption and black money that were r On the fourth anniversary of the decision on Sunday, PM Modi tweeted, initially billed as a silver bullet to eliminate everything from ill-gotten wealth to terrorismampant during the “lost decade” of the Congress-led UPA government.

It resulted in cleaning up of the economy, formalization of the informal sector and revenue aggregation, said BJP spokesperson Rajeev Chandrasekhar.