West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was threatening other parties raising voices against demonetisation and said she would hit the streets of Delhi on Tuesday to protest against the Centre’s move which caused immense hardship to the people.
“The prime minister is threatening other parties who are raising their voices on demonetisation. The PM should be sober. The PM should behave like a PM. If necessary, he should convene an all-party meeting on the issue,” Banerjee told a press conference at the state secretariat.
“There is no ego fight. There should be a plan of action on demonetisation. My humble submission is that let us work together to solve the issue. The people are suffering,” the Trinamool Congress supremo said.
Claiming that some political parties were unable to raise their voices because the ‘PM is threatening them’, the she said, “But I will not be cowed down. I will continue to protest. He can put me in jail. He (Modi) is even threatening his own party.”
Modi at a rally in Agra on Sunday said that political leaders behind multi-crore chit fund scams were attacking him because they had been hit hard by demonetisation, indirectly referring to Mamata Banerjee.
Alleging that there was a ‘scam’ behind this move, she said, “There must be some hidden agenda. What is the hidden agenda? Let them bring it to the public domain,” she said.
Banerjee said that she would hit the streets in Delhi on Tuesday and visit other states also on this issue.
“I will be in Delhi on November 23, 24 and in Lucknow on November 29. I will also go to Bihar and Punjab,” she announced.
“This is not a political issue. We are speaking on behalf of commoners. Markets are closed. Small traders are hit,” she said, adding, “I have no personal interest. I am doing this for the sake of the people of the country.”
She said that she was not alone in her fight and added at least three other parties had gone with her to the President.
“I will request all (opposition) political parties to be with the people,” she said.
The chief minister said that the Centre is allowing demonetised notes in various sectors like railways, aviation, petroleum, etc but not for state government sectors.
On the PM’s attack against her in the Agra rally on Sunday, Banerjee expressed surprise that since both the Reserve Bank of India and Securities and Exchange Board of India were in his hands what prevented him from getting it (chit fund scam) investigated.
“We have never seen a PM who threatens his political opponents,” she said adding that NPAs of banks should he investigated as ‘it is a big scandal’.
“A big damage has been done to the country in the last 13 days. Recession has already started. GDP is down,” she said.
The Bharatiya Janata Party, meanwhile, asked her to come clean on charges of receiving huge funds from a fictitious company before 2014 Lok Sabha election.
Coming down heavily on Banerjee for saying that anyone who opposed the PM’s policy was equated with corruption, BJP national secretary Siddharth Nath Singh claimed, “Mamata Banerjee resembles the comic character of betal. She keeps on blabbering lies, false statements and canards. She should stop spreading those lies. She is questioning the prime minister, but what is her credibility?
“She had arrested a professor for circulating cartoons and a farmer for seeking a clarification regarding crops. She had asked the police administration to harass a college student for questioning her. She should not make those statements,” Singh said.
The BJP leader questioned the TMC supremo about the funds that her party had received from a fictitious company before the 2014 Lok Sabha election.
Photograph: PTI Photo
