Taking a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Congress on Sunday said that his demonetisation step, which Modi dubbed as a "Shuddhi Yajna", was "an uncontrolled forest fire" that claimed over a 100 lives.

"The 50 days of so-called Shuddhi Yajna is nothing short of an uncontrolled forest fire that has taken a toll on 118 lives across the country and has crippled around 40 per cent of informal economy," senior Congress leader and former Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan told media persons here.

He said the decision to scrap Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes has completely failed as "almost all of the black money has been converted into white".

"Why is government not giving any hard data over demonetisation, such as how much money has come back? What he gave at the end of 50 days is a mini budget speech...full of jingoistic appeal wrapped up in nationalistic fervour," Chavan said.

Picking holes in Modi's speech delivered on the eve of New Year, Chavan pointed out that the sops announced by Modi for pregnant women was first started in November 2010 as a pilot project during the UPA regime and the initial amount of Rs 4,000 was hiked to Rs 6,000 in 2013.

"There was fear that the Prime Minister would unleash second surgical strike and announce further harsh measures in his fight against corruption," Chavan said.