Patna: RJD President Lalu Prasad Yadav on Wednesday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has “pushed the country backwards” through his decision to scrap high value currency notes in the name of fighting black money.
Addressing the RJD ‘mahadharna’, Prasad said he would announce the date of a rally against demonetisation within a week, in which, he would invite all non-BJP parties on one platform on the issue of recall of the demonetised Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 denomination bank notes.
RJD alone participated in the dharna against demonetisation on Wednesday and its two allies in the state, the JD(U) and Congress stayed away.
While JD(U) President and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had said that the party would analyse the demonetisation decision on completion of 50 days of the drive, Congress though extending a moral support to RJD, kept away from stir.
Addressing the ‘Mahadharna‘, Lalu said, “Every party has its own agitation programme but the entire opposition is one in protesting demonetisation.”
“Though all the opposition parties have their own agitation programme against demonetisation, all of them would converge at the ‘Chauraha’ (public square) and the Prime Minister could choose a ‘Chauraha’ of his liking where the people could punish him for derailing the country through scrapping of notes,” he said.
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“I will invite all opposition parties together at the proposed rally against demonetisation which the RJD would organise in Patna and it would be their choice to attend or not,” he said.
“Modi has pushed the country backwards through his decision to scrap high-value currency notes in the name of fighting black money,” Lalu said.
Although no other parties came with RJD in ‘Mahadharna’, Lalu in a bid to reach out to prominent leaders of different parties mentioned issues raised by JD(U), Rahul Gandhi and Mamata Banerjee on demonetisation.
Prasad echoed the issue of large-scale land purchases by BJP in Bihar ahead of demonetisation, an issue which had also been raised by JD(U).
On Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi’s allegation that Narendra Modi had received about Rs 44 crore from Sahara when he was the Gujarat Chief Minister, he asked the prime minister to reply to the query instead of making fun of Gandhi.
“If the allegation that Rahul Gandhi is making is not true why don’t you file a defamation suit against him in the Supreme Court?” the RJD chief asked.
Besides the state capital, RJD also held sit-in demonstrations in all district headquarters of the state against the demonetisation decision of the Modi government.
The RJD President praised the TMC chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for “taking up the plight of the common man” in the wake of demonetisation.
“I thank Mamata Banerjee for taking a round of the country to highlight the woes of citizens in the wake of demonetisation,” he said.
Though Prasad himself had not attended Banerjee’s dharna in Patna on November 30 last, he had sent his party leaders to share the dais with her.
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“More than 40,000 labourers engaged in the unorganised sector returned home in Bihar from Punjab, Haryana and Delhi with tears in their eyes as factories closed down due to demonetisation,” he claimed.
Taking potshots at the prime minister, Lalu said, “The man who had claimed himself of being a ‘fakir’ has travelled across half the world in ‘suit-boot’ without bringing any substantial investment in the country from abroad.”
Referring to assertions of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that the country’s GDP would drop by about 2.5% due to demonetisation, the RJD chief pointed out a write-up in a global magazine which he said had painted a sorry picture of the country due to the scrapping of currencies.
“Earlier, the then Prime Minister Morarji Desai had to quit office midway for his decision of recalling high denomination currency notes and Narendra Modi would meet a similar fate,” he said.
Taking a dig at Union Minister Ravishankar Prasad for taking a strong defence of the PM on demonetisation, Lalu Prasad alleged that “Ravishankar Prasad figures in the list of Sahara, whom they gave money.”
Speaking on the issue of the government popularising “Paytm” to usher the country towards cashless transactions, the RJD chief alleged that it was a bid to benefit a company in which China has major share and the company would charge 2.5% commission on a transaction.
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