New Delhi, November 16: Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and leaders of three other parties including the Shiv Sena on Wednesday sought President Pranab Mukherjees intervention over the problems faced by people following the “financial calamity” unleashed by the demonetisation move.
Joined by the leaders of National Conference, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and BJP ally Shiv Sena, Banerjee and 40 of her Trinamool MPs marched to Rashtrapati Bhavan demanding rollback of demonetisation of 500 and 1,000 rupee notes.
However, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal gave the march a miss, with MP Bhagwant Mann representing the party.
Dubbing demonetisation as a “big black scheme”, Banerjee said the currency spike decision has led to the deaths of around 20-30 people across the country and resulted in a loss of Rs 2 lakh crore to the GDP.
“This is a big black scheme, today there are no vegetables in the market, no milk for babies and no medicine for the sick and the ailing. Around 20-30 people have already died, many of them due to stress,” said Banerjee.
She also called for a probe into the rise of the banks’ non-performing assets (NPAs). “In the last six months, nonperforming assets (of banks) have increased substantially, there should be a probe into this. Even the government’s income declaration scheme did not attract a single paisa,” she claimed.
Equating Modi with the medieval era Delhi Sultan Muhammad Bin Tughlaq, Banerjee ridiculed “the totally unplanned” demonetisation move.
“Now ATM means ‘Aayega toh milega’,” said Banerjee reflecting on the cash-starved citizens’ ordeal.
“The move was implemented without any planning, this has created financial calamity and financial emergency in the country. The country has been pushed towards anarchy,” she said.
Banerjee also said the Trinamool will bring an adjournment motion in the Lok Sabha on Thursday against demonetisation.
She hoped the President will take appropriate steps.
“We told the President that you are the custodian of the Constitution, you talk to the government so that normalcy is restored. Otherwise the condition will worsen, people will die of hunger, there will be riots. Because of this agricultural production has suffered, there will be no food then.
“The peaceful country has been pushed towards anarchy, this has led to law and order problems.
“The President gave us a patient hearing, he was the country’s Finance Minister, no one can understand the situation better than him. So we hope he will take appropriate action,” added Banerjee.
National Conference leader Omar Abdullah was among leaders who took part in the march that started from the Parliament House premises.
The Shiv Sena which has been critical of demonetisation was represented by MP Anandrao Adsul who said they were not against the decision to demonetise currency but at the way it was implemented.
“We are not against the decision but the way it has been implemented. On that we are supporting Trinamool Congress. The decision should have been implemented with proper preparations,” Adsul told IANS.
CPI(M) Rajya Sabha member Sitaram Yechury on Wednesday criticised the Centre’s demonetisation move and took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi by comparing him to French Queen Marie Antoinette.
“It reminds me of Marie Antoinette who during the French Revolution said if they (people) don’t find bread, why don’t they eat cakes. Now, we have Modi Antoinette who says: ‘If you don’t have paper, use plastic’.”
“What is the coverage of your plastic money?” asked Yechury, who is also General Secretary of the Communist Party of India-Marxist.
“Only 2.6 crore of the 130 crore Indians have credit cards. Will that run our economy? More than 80 per cent of our economy is in cash, which is called payments and settlement system,” the Left leader said.
He said: “None of the points given by the Prime Minister (on demonetisation) stand on strong footing, whether it’s terror funding, black money, counterfeit currency or corruption.”
He said farmers were resorting to distress sale of paddy, offering it at throwaway prices.
“Now farmers are selling paddy at Rs 200-250 per quintal. If this not distress sale, what is?” asked Yechury.
“What is being demonetised is 86 per cent of the cash in circulation (in the Indian economy). The country today is living on cash transactions of only 14 per cent. “If you stop Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, do you think corruption will stop? Corruption will now double with Rs 2,000 notes,” the CPI-M leader said.
