Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Friday compared the Centre’s demonetisation drive to “World War II firebombing” that has targeted “honest people”. During his rally in Goa’s Margao, he said the decision to scrap Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes will “snatch money from the poor and give it to the rich”.

Citing industrialist Vijay Mallya as an example, Gandhi said, “In the last two and a half years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi waived off Rs 1.10 lakh crore that such defaulters owed. After demonetisation, he waived off Vijay Mallya’s Rs 1,200 crore.”

The Congress leader has been voicing his opposition to the currency ban since it was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 8. Earlier this week, Gandhi had claimed to have information that would prove that Modi was corrupt. “Read my lips...the prime minister is personally terrified of the information I have, we have. It is the personal corruption of the prime minister that we have detailed information on,” he had said.

Earlier on Friday, Gandhi had led a Congress delegation to meet Modi and hand over a memorandum on loan waivers for farmers. Later, Modi had accused the Congress of prioritising the party’s interests over the nation’s and said former prime minister Indira Gandhi should have opted for demonetisation in 1971.