Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on Public Accounts KV Thomas said the panel had the right to summon anyone including, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, PTI reported on Sunday. Thomas, who is also a senior Congress leader, said the prime minister would be summoned if the PAC was not satisfied with Reserve Bank of India Governor Urjit Patel’s answers to queries on demonetisation. Several Finance Ministry officials were also summoned by the PAC on Sunday.

Thomas claimed the prime minister was misleading the country to satisfy his ego. “He is trying to justify his wrong decisions,” he said, adding that Modi had assured citizens that the cash crunch triggered by the currency ban would normalise in 50 days. The PAC chairperson further said that the decision to summon top officials was made when normalcy failed to return across the country. Modi had demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes on November 8, 2016.

India does not have the infrastructure to support Modi’s digitisation plans, the parliamentary panel chief said. “In a country where there is a call drop problem and telecom facilities are not smooth, how can the PM expect e-transactions to take place on mobiles?”

The Public Accounts Committee had asked Urjit Patel to elaborate on how and by whom the decision on the currency ban was made. He was also asked to explain the impact of demonetisation on the economy and the names of the officials taken into confidence before the decision was finalised. The RBI governor has been given until January 20 to respond to 10 questions. “If there are no laws that you can cite, why should you not be prosecuted?”, the panel asked Patel in a questionnaire dated December 30.