West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday said she was willing join forces with all Opposition parties to take the Centre on against its demonetisation scheme. The Trinamool Congress said she was even willing to work with bitter rival Communist Party of India (Marxist), she said at a press conference at the State Secretariat. Banerjee has rarely ever seen eye-to-eye with the CPI(M) before.
Banerjee said the Bharatiya Janata Party’s move to do away with Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes overnight was “anti-people and anti-poor”. “This government has no moral right to continue in power,” she added.
On Tuesday, Banerjee had called the BJP’s scheme a “draconian decision”. She said she was deeply concerned about how the move will affect small traders and farmers, even though she was “strongly against black money”. “How will they buy essentials?”, she had said.
The Centre’s move has drawn opposition from nearly every political front, from the Congress to the Samajwadi Party and the Aam Aadmi Party. AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday had called for the scheme to be withdrawn immediately, saying it was a scam and that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “friends” had been informed of the drive in advance.
The BJP, however, has held firm, claiming the long-term benefits of the move outweigh the immediate inconvenience, and said other parties were irresponsible for opposing it. The BJP claims the demonetisation of the notes, which made up 86% of the cash flowing through the country, would help tackle the problems of black money and counterfeit currency.
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