To protest against Reserve Bank of India (RBI)’s failure to do its constitutional duty at the time of demonetisation, Haryana and Chandigarh units of the Congress will gherao the regional office of the RBI on January 18.
“The RBI has failed to do its constitutional duty at the time of demonetisation, due to which people had to suffer a lot. The misery of the people has not ended, they are still suffering,” said Haryana Congress chief Ashok Tanwar on Sunday.
The Congress had convened a meeting of the party MlAs and MPs from the State on Sunday in view of the decision to gherao the RBI office, which will be part of Congress’ national programme to gherao RBI offices at other places in the country as well on January 18.
The meeting had been summoned by senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha member from Himachal Pradesh Viplove Thakur and was attended among others by former Union Minister and Chandigarh former MP Pawan Kumar Bansal, former Haryana Minister Ajay Singh Yadav.
However, former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and most of the legislators were not present at the meeting.
Commenting on the absence of Haryana Congress MlAs in the meeting, Viplove Thakur said, “I had summoned the meeting at a short notice.”
Thakur while addressing mediapersons said the MlAs and other leaders who could not attend the meeting informed me over phone that they had pre-scheduled engagements. However, they have assured that all of them will be present on January 18, she said.
When asked about factionalism in the Haryana Congress, she said, “I talked to Hooda also, there is no groupism in the party. It is a national programme of the Congress party (on Jan 18) and everyone will participate in the event.”
Talking to the mediapersons, Bansal said, “Congress has decided to gherao the RBI because it has failed to do its constitutional duty and has happily surrendered its autonomy.”
About the demonetisation step, Bansal said, “For the first time such a thing has happened in the country, which is unconstitutional, against the law and against the rules and regulations of the RBI. This decision of the Modi Government has been thrust upon the people.”
“According to a conservative estimate, the demonetisation step will hit country’s GDP by at least 1 per cent, which is nearly Rs 1.5 lakh crore,” said Bansal, adding “Also, cashless society is not practical in a big and diverse country like India.”
When asked why the Congress had done poorly in the recently held civic polls in Chandigarh, Bansal did not agree that people of Chandigarh had backed demonetisation decision of the Government, saying other factors were at work here.