Miffed apparently by plain speaking indulged in by Narendra Modi during his interactions with his party’s MPs who met the former on the demonetisation issue, Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray said ironically here on Tuesday that while he was grateful to Modi for the respect he had shown to his late father Bal Thackeray, the late Sena chief would be happy if the Prime Minister took measures to reduce the inconvenience caused to common man.
After news reports trickled into Mumbai from the Shiv Sena sources claiming that the Prime Minister told the party MPs curtly that as and when he would go to heaven, he would tell respond directly to late Thackeray and tell him that he had done an excellent job, the Sena interpreted the Prime Minister’s remarks that he was not answerable to the NDA constituent on the after-effects of his demonetisation decision.
Talking to media persons at his residence “Matoshri” later in the day, Uddhav took a pot shot at Modi, saying: “From the tone and tenor of the Prime Minister’s remarks, you can gauge as to how much of respect he has for my late father. One expects a satisfactory from the Prime Minister on the issues affecting the common people. If the common people get a proper response from the Prime Minister and if the hardships being faced by the common people are eased, then my late father will be really happy”.
Though it has announced that it would not join the Opposition’s protests against demonetisation, the Sena is extremely upset with the treatment its MPs received at the hands of the Prime Minister earlier on Tuesday.
Apart from expressing displeasure over the plain speaking by the Prime Minister who reportedly told the Sena MPs as much ever their party protested demonetisation it would have remain with the NDA, Uddhav hit out at Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis for his remark that those opposing the “historic” demonetisation move were nothing but anit-nationals.
“You do not need to teach patriotism to people who are distressed and quietly standing in queues. Their hard earned money is being used for all works in the country. Thus, you (the BJP) should not label people as patriots or anti— nationals as per your whims and fancies,” Thackeray said.
Earlier in the day, the Sena’s official mouth-piece‘Saamana’ had said in an editorial that the currency scrapping exercise had failed to unearth the “real” black money and that it only helped the government deflect attention from burning issues like hunger, inflation and unemployment.
On his part, Uddhav also debunked the Reserve Bank of India’s proposal to open
“Islamic window” in conventional banks for “gradual” introduction of Sharia—compliant or interest—free banking in the country, he wondered as to where was the country heading. “You do not allow district co—operative banks to exchange old currency and on the other hand permitting Islamic banking. I do not understand where our country is heading,” he said.
Uddhav said that if the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes could stop terrorism, the whole world should have adopted this model. “If it were true that scrapping old currency would stop terrorism, the whole world should adopt this model as terrorism is a global evil and every country is at risk,” he said.