After the completion of 50 days of demonetisation, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar might review his stand. The JD(U) national president was one of the few leaders from the Opposition ranks who had strongly welcomed the demonetisation but criticised by non-NDA parties.
Nitish said, “PM has asked for 50 days. The time he had sought will be over by December 30. let him complete this period.” But he was critical of the way this decision was implemented “without thorough preparedness” and it caused immense problems to the common people. He even drew parallel between his total prohibition decision for which he and his team worked for months considering all the pros and cons and how to implement it and with PM’s demonetisation.
Bihar JD(U) president Bashistha Narain Singh said his party was waiting for 50 days to complete. “Our party is seriously concerned over the hardships to the people. If similar situation prevailed after December 30 we will be forced to have a relook at this decision. We had supported demonetisation because our policy had been to oppose black money and corruption,” said Singh
However, JD(U) secretary general KC Tyagi was more vocal. “The Centre has failed miserably in the implementation of the demonetisation and common people are facing a lot of agonies. Our party may review its stand after December 30,” Tyagi said. He said Nitish has right to question PM’s poor preparation before making such a big announcement.
The CM has been saying that the demonetisation alone would not succeed in finding out and confiscating black money and the Centre should hit at benami assets amassed by the corrupt people who were hardly affected by note ban.
RJD, which had been critical of the PM’s decision from the very beginning has planned to hold agitation across Bihar on this issue. The party will decide its future course of action after seeking opinion of its MPs, legislators and senior leaders at the meeting called by party supremo lalu Prasad on Saturday.
Senior RJD leader Raghubansh Prasad Singh, a known Nitish baiter, has accused the CM of trying to go back to the BJP. “By supporting demonetisation Nitish is getting closer to the BJP and it damaging the basic character of the grand alliance Government in Bihar. He is scared that RJD, which has more MlAs than JD(U), may dethrone him so he is desperate to gain BJP’s trust,” said the former Union Minister and added that PM had not asked Nitish to support demonetisation.