West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee yesterday launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the demonetisation issue, and called upon opposition parties to shun politics and join hands against the central government.
Addressing the West Bengal Assembly, she said Modi was “not qualified” to be the prime minister and demanded a judicial probe into financial transactions by his Bharatiya Janata Party prior to the November 8 decision of the central government to ban Rs500 and 1,000 notes.
“The demonetisation decision has been taken without planning. Common people are facing huge problems. Undeclared financial emergency has been imposed on the country,” she said.
“In 21 days they have modified their decision 21 times. Can you believe it? They have no idea what to do. The Centre is treating people like guinea pigs,” said Banerjee while participating in a discussion in demonetisation in the assembly.
Dubbing demonetisation as a “big scandal”, “big scam” and “big crime”, she also flayed Modi over the mobile payments company Paytm’s advertisement that featured him.
“The prime minister is busy doing advertisement for Paytm. Have you ever seen a prime minister endorse private companies?
“The prime minister talks of cashless banking without even creating the infrastructure. He is trying to forcefully enforce cashless economy.
“Has Modi bothered to see the darkness beneath the lamp? Modi does not have the qualification to be the prime minister,” she said.
Claiming that the “BJP bought land in several states in September and October right before the demonetisation” was announced, Banerjee demanded a judicial probe into those financial transactions.
Elaborating the sufferings of the common people including daily wagers and farmers, she called upon the opposition parties to join the fight against the central government.
“If the situation is not addressed, there will be food crisis. We are against black money and black marketing, but we can’t support the process adopted by the Centre.
“This is not the time for politics. We must fight unitedly in this time of crisis,” said Banerjee who has held public rallies in several states against demonetisation and also petitioned President Pranab Mukherjee demanding a rollback of the move.
Meanwhile, Haryana Finance Minister Abhimanyu said there was no impact of demonetisation on the revenue of the state and there was no fall in registration of properties as well.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee shows the new Rs500 notes during her speech in the state assembly yesterday.
