The Opposition parties on Wednesday closed ranks on the issue of demonetisation of high value currency notes, with the Nationalist Congress Party and Janata Dal (U) shrugging off their initial reluctance and rallying behind West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, even as the Congress, the left, Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party, the Aam Aadmi Party, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the Rashtriya Janata Dal among others, made a unified attack on the Government. The Opposition also called for a countrywide protest named Aakrosh Diwas on November 28 against the cash crunch being faced by the public.
The Opposition leaders protested against demonetisation outside Parliament as Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi stepped up his attack on the Government saying they were firm on their demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the “scam.”
Mamata hit the streets of Delhi once again demanding Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ouster as the “country was not safe in his hands” while Rahul said that Modi should be present in Parliament and sit through the debate on demonetisation.
“We have submitted an adjournment motion on the issue. We want a debate to take place under the adjournment motion. But we are not being allowed to speak. The Government is scared to allow us to speak,” Rahul said.
“The Prime Minister can give lectures at a pop concert where naach gaana is going on. Nearly 200 MPs are saying they want to tell the nation why he took this decision. The PM does not want to come to Parliament. Why is the PM afraid of going insideIJ He is obviously anxious about something,” Rahul said.
Opposition MPs formed human chains near Mahatma Gandhi’s statue while protesting against demonetisation.
Mamata, whose party had taken the lead in uniting the Opposition against the Government on the issue, was in the national Capital again after a gap of a few days and led a protest by four other parties at Jantar Mantar where she gave a call for Modi’s ouster.
“This Government will have to go...I am sorry to say, the country is not secure under you Modiji. You do things as per your whims and fancies,” she said, addressing the gathering.
Flanked by leaders of SP, JD(U), NCP and AAP, Mamata alleged that the BJP-led dispensation had lost its “credentials and credibility” because of the currency crisis.
Accusing the NDA Government of “looting” the common man, she wondered why those with Swiss bank accounts were “not touched at all”, and warned that people will teach a “good lesson” to the ruling party in the upcoming Assembly polls for implementing a “black law”.
Earlier, as Opposition MPs staged a protest outside Parliament, Rahul said the Prime Minister should explain why he took such a decision and why he “leaked” the decision to his industrialist friends and BJP leaders.
“What the PM has done is the biggest impromptu financial experiment in the world. He did not ask anyone. The Finance Minister did not know. The Chief Economic Adviser did not know. This decision is not that of the Finance Minister. This is the Prime Minister’s decision. We feel there is a scam behind this decision. We feel he informed his own people before and the Opposition is firm that it wants a JPC,” he said.
He pointed out, “If you look at the bank deposits, you will see, there has been an increase in the amount of deposits in the banks before demonetisation was announced, there were people who had the information.”
Rahul said all Opposition parties, including the Congress, were fighting corruption and black money. “The question is why one billion people have been harassed in this mannerIJ” he asked.
“It is a question of complete centralisation of power. I have been saying that the country cannot be run in this manner. You have hit the economy, which was running fine. It was not running the way it was during the UPA’s time, but it was somehow running. You have hit it hard,” he said.
He added that the decision had hit fishermen in Bengal, Kerala and other places. It has finished farmers and labourers.
Hitting back at Rahul, the BJP said the Government was eager to hear his “scholarly” arguments on demonetisation as it wants to know the Congress vice-president’s stand on the issue of black money.
Speaking to reporters, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad also cited the Congress’ poor show in bypoll results announced on Tuesday.
Taking a dig at the Opposition’s protest in the morning, Prasad said instead of forming a human chain outside Parliament they should produce a “chain of speakers” inside and start a debate as the Government has been ready for a discussion from the first day of the Winter Session.
Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu insisted that rolling back is something not in Modi’s blood and ruled out withdrawing the Government’s demonetisation decision as demanded by some Opposition parties.
“Wapas lena Modi ji ke khoon mein nahi hai,” he said while addressing a mahapanchayat of Delhi Dehat Kisan Mazdoor here.