PM Narendra Modi's decision to scrap old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes and introduce new Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 notes in a surprise announcement on November 8 took away the spotlight from many issues and personalities, including BJP MP Subramanian Swamy.

The former Harvard professor was hogging the limelight for many weeks till the replacement of Raghuram Rajan as RBI governor (whose term ended in September this year) and for his tweets on various other issues, like the Ram Janambhoomi dispute of Ayodhya.

Swamy was in Hong Kong recently where he was invited to speak by the Foreign Correspondents Club. The Rajya Sabha member spoke at length on topics that are close to his heart: corruption, black money, its impact on economic activity.

In the past few weeks, he has been tweeting on Modi's "surgical strike" on black money but the comments have ebbed. One reason could be the Indian media's obsession with the saturated coverage of the impact of demonetisation decision, especially queues at bank branches, ATMs, the political slugfest in and outside the Parliament.

His latest tweet was on the Supreme Court's decision to entertain a petition filed by Common Cause alleging payoffs by the Sahara Group and the Aditya Birla Group to Narendra Modi. The case, heard by Justices J S Khehar and Arun Mishra, was dismissed as it was found to be devoid of substance. 

"We can't initiate proceedings because somebody is a big man. For ordering a probe, there has to be some suspicion. The materials you have produced don't allow us to have any suspicion. This is zero material. It is an insinuation," Justice Khekar said, the Asian Age reported.

Shanti Bhushan, father of Prashant Bhushan, appeared for NGO Common Cause in the case and was joined by advocate Ram Jethmalani.

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