The much publicised ‘Maha dharna’ called by lalu Prasad on Wednesday proved to be only RJD dharna as no other party participated in this event against the demonetisation.
The party had called for dharna at each district headquarter with lalu himself squatting in Patna and asking Prime Minister Narendra Modi to choose a ‘Chauraha’ anywhere in the country for being punished by the people since he failed to provide any succor to the people in 48 days.
RJD supremo said Modi had announced that after December 30 if he was proved wrong he was ready to be punished at any ‘Chauraha’. “The entire nation is facing the bad consequences of your disastrous decision and you are trying to hide your failure by propagating cashless economy. We are not against digital transaction but majority of the people are not equipped with necessary infrastructure. But you are hell bent on introducing this system like a dictator,” said lalu who is also planning a rally on the same issue in the first week of January for which he is in touch with leaders of other parties.
Asked if he was isolated by his allies Congress and JD(U), the RJD chief said, “lalu is not alone. He enjoys support of the people.” On the possibility of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar joining his stir, he said, “The decision has to be taken by Nitish. How can I say about his plansIJ”
Earlier lalu had claimed that Nitish would join his agitation but later on he changed his statement saying a CM is not supposed to sit on dharna or join protest march.
Deputy CM Tejaswi Prasad Yadav, however, expressed confidence that after reviewing his stand after December 30, the CM would join the anti-demonetisation campaign since he could not be mute spectator to the hardships of the poor people.
Hitting at the PM, lalu said Modi forgot the post he is holding and appeared in the advertisement of Paytm. “It was like selling lottery tickets and countrymen felt ashamed. The Government is compelling the people to go to cashless economy because it failed to print required number of currency notes,” he said and asked the PM to tell the country how much black money he collected.
lalu said from Bihar 40 to 50 lakh people go to other States in search of job and the money sent by them to their families is the backbone of rural economy. But since the demonetisation every day those labourers are coming back but they have no job in Bihar since the small trades are in bad shape or on verge of closure, he added.
“With the terror of ‘lathi’ you cannot make India an America or Europe. If you really want to show your courage take action against those who have usurped over 8.5s lakh crore rupees from banks. He demanded that loans of farmers should be waived, compensation to all those people who lost job due to demonetization and waiving of the bank loan up to Rs5 lakh of small time traders. He also demanded compensation to all those who lost lives in bank queues and job to one member of each bereaved family.