Akhilesh slams Modi for demonetisation, unfulfilled promises

PATNA: Former UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday made a frontal attack on the BJPled central government, saying PM Narendra Modi should clarify as to how many youths have been left jobless after demonetisation and implementation of GST.

Yadav, addressing a 19-party opposition rally sponsored by the RJD, also wondered whether demonestisation has in any way helped to rein in corruption and terrorism, as claimed.

“Who has benefited from demonetisation, which was done with the express purpose to help banks mobilise low cost funds,” he said. Expressing solidarity with RJD’s initiative to unite opposition parties, Yadav said someone had at last stepped out to give a call to the country to stand up for the cause of the farmers, the poor and the marginalised, he said.

The former UP CM also referred to RJD chief’s action of stopping BJP leader L K Advani’s rath yatra in the 1990s, saying “if Bihar can stop the rath, it can also stop the BJP.”

“Unity of all parties was the only way the BJP could be tamed,” Akhilesh added.

Yadav also castigated the Modi government for playing up the rhetoric of ‘acchey din’ and doing little to ameliorate the condition of the poor, farmers and youths.

“Now, the BJP has changed its tag line from ‘acchey din’ to ‘new India’, realizing they have failed to fulfill their promises. But such gimmicks would no longer befool the people of India,” he said.

“Now they are cracking down on Romeos, but the Adityanath Yogi government should explain, who were these Romeos and to which party they belonged.”Yadav, whose Samajwadi Party suffered a poll defeat in UP a few months back, also flayed the practice by BJP of misusing central agencies to terrorise rival political parties and referred to the inquiry set up by Yogi Adityanath government into the Gomti riverfront project. The scheme was one of Akhilesh’s pet projects.

“I am also in the club of those being inquired into,” he quipped, evoking a cheer from the crowd. Yadav, the SP chief, also mentioned how his government had promised to provide smart mobile phones to people free of cost. “Now a corporate group has hijacked the idea and is giving free smart phones,” he said.