NOTE BAN: GOVT, OPPN SEE IT IN BLACK AND WHITE
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) celebrated the first anniversary of note ban on Wednesday as “anti-black money day”, with Union ministers addressing press conferences in several cities and also launching signature campaigns that supported the Narendra Modi government’s efforts at curbing black money. Several of the Opposition parties responded with protests to mark the day as “black day”. The Congress and the Left parties held protests across the country. The Trinamool Congress organised protests across West Bengal. The Rashtriya Janata Dal held protests in Bihar, the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam led Opposition protests in Tamil Nadu. Several Opposition leaders either wore black bands or turned their Twitter display pictures to black.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) celebrated the first anniversary of note ban on Wednesday as “anti-black money day”, with Union ministers addressing press conferences in several cities and also launching signature campaigns that supported the Narendra Modi government’s efforts at curbing black money.
Several of the Opposition parties responded with protests to mark the day as “black day”. Congress and the Left parties held protests across the country. The Trinamool Congress organised protests across West Bengal. Rashtriya Janata Dal held protests in Bihar, Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) led Opposition protests in Tamil Nadu.
Several Opposition leaders either wore black bands or turned their Twitter display pictures to black. BJP ally Shiv Sena joined the protests in Maharashtra. Shiv Sena performed a ‘shradh’, or death rites, at Ramkund, a sacred bathing ghat on the Godavari, in Nashik, in front of enlarged pictures of the scrapped notes.
While the dates for the winter session of Parliament are yet to be announced, it became apparent that the issue was all set to be discussed as and when the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha are convened. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance, headed by Congress’ M Veerappa Moily, is scheduled to meet on Thursday where senior finance ministry officials will brief the panel on the demonetisation decision and its ramifications. The committee is slated to meet again on November 16, and has to submit its report in the winter session.
In the political arena, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to Twitter in the morning to “bow” to the people of India for supporting the measures taken by the government against corruption and black money. The PM also posted short films on his Twitter handle to showcase the benefits it brought and said Indians won a decisive battle against black money.
Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi interacted with traders in Surat, took part in a candlelight vigil and also took to social media to criticise demonetisation. The Congress, however, was left a tad embarrassed when one of Rahul Gandhi’s tweets slamming note ban carried the picture of ex-serviceman Nandalal.
The retired soldier had become somewhat of an icon for anti-demonetisation campaign in 2016 after a website had published a photograph of him distraught and standing in an ATM queue. However, the man told television channels on Wednesday that he supported any step, including note ban, which curbed corruption in the country. BJP chief Amit Shah, who was in Junagadh in Gujarat leading a signature campaign in support of ‘anti-black money day’, tweeted the ex-serviceman’s soundbite. Shah tagged Rahul Gandhi in the tweet and said the soundbite exposed the lies of the Congress.
In an article in the UK’s Financial Times, Rahul Gandhi accused the PM of “robbing” the country of its economic prowess and “damaging” India by converting people’s anger due to joblessness into “communal hatred”. The Congress Vice President said in the article that “the Chinese cat has firmly caught the global manufacturing mouse”.