Parliament is forum to discuss demonetization
Once again, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal are back to threatening street politics, this time over the Government’s demonetisation decision. But their attempt to mislead the people will be rebuffed. Even the naysayers have fully understood by now, the positive impact of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's demonetisation drive. Both the Chief Ministers must understand that giving an ultimatum to the Union Government to roll back demonetisation, is not the solution to fight the black money menace. Their plan to launch countrywide street protests reflects an absolutely irresponsible way to highlight the gaps in the demonetisation drive. They are well aware that instead of taking the debate to the streets, Parliament is the right forum to question the Government. They can claim that the Government may have not thought about the fallouts of the scheme the way it has unfolded presently. But then, the Government has been adopting all sorts of precautions to help the masses through reliable channels. Definitely, the common people are hurt by the sudden announcement of the drive. In such an environment, Kejriwal has warned the Government: “Take back this decision in three days. Don't test people's patience. Otherwise, there will be a bagaawat (revolt) by people.” It seems, this was done with ulterior motives to defame the Government. Banerjee went one step ahead by saying: “What will people eatIJ DiamondsIJ ATMsIJ What kind of a joke is thisIJ A crisis of this proportion was not seen even during the Emergency.”
Is it so that both the Chief Ministers are just trying to impress the people with cheap talkIJ Are they planning to create chaos in the country by bringing out street protests against the GovernmentIJ That seems to be the plan. If they are worried so much about the hardships borne by the demonetisation drive, they should have addressed public rallies to clear the confusion about the scheme. Since they represent the people's interests , being grassroots politicians, they should understand that people are generally supportive of the decision. They must be guided by sane economics, rather than fall prey to populist politics. More than the Delhiites, the rest of the countrymen are also by now extremely familiar with Chief Minister Kejriwal's anti-Modi rhetoric. To him, any crisis, stemming from the city municipal corporations to the current monetary reform, is nothing but the ‘failure’ of Prime Minister Modi's governance. However, it is he, and not Modi, that is fooling the people, by simply talking and hurling accusations, either against the Union Government or almost, regularly on the lieutenant Governor of Delhi. He must stop this. His good old activist mood should be used to fight the cancer of black money. When it comes to Banerjee, she has so much to deliver to her State, and so she mustn’t waste time in the capital, lampooning a sensible Government reform measure. She has not been able to come up with any substantial policy package to tackle the rot left behind by decades of left-rule in West Bengal. The State is notorious for organised goondaism brought by her own party people. Also, she doesn’t seem to remember the massive Saradha scam in which some of her seninor party leaders were allegedly involved.