Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and his state Cabinet colleague Kapil Mishra were detained from near Parliament on Tuesday when they were leading a protest march against the Centre’s demonetisation decision. The march was to end in a gherao of Parliament, reported The Times of India. “[Prime Minister] Narendra Modi said that terrorist funding will end but today’s paper said terrorists have been caught with Rs 2,000 notes,” said Sisodia.
Earlier, the deputy chief minister met relatives of a man who died while waiting in a queue outside a bank in the Capital’s Najafgarh area. He blamed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for these deaths. “There is a PM who keeps changing clothes and there is the ‘aam aadmi’ who has been made to stand in line to change notes,” he added.
Parliament, on the other hand, was adjourned till Wednesday after Opposition parties staged massive protests. This was the sixth consecutive day that the two Houses have not functioned. Communist Party of India General Secretary Sitaram Yechury blamed Modi for the adjournments. “When Parliament is in session, PM speaks outside it every day, but not inside,” he said, adding that Opposition parties were mulling to move a contempt notice against the prime minister.
Meanwhile, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee continued with her criticism of the decision to ban Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes. “Instead of getting money from the Swiss Bank, the government snatched common man’s money. [The] BJP will get befitting reply from the people, they wont be able to get any votes this time,” she added.
Both Arvind Kejriwal and Mamata Banerjee have been vocal about their reservations against such a decision. On November 17, the two leaders had slapped a 72-hour ultimatum on the Centre to rollback the move. Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress Party was the first to react, calling the step a “draconian decision”.
On Wednesday, the West Bengal chief minister had led a march to submit a memorandum to President Pranab Mukherjee. Though Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party had given this rally a miss, Banerjee had been joined by the BJP’s Maharashtra ally Shiv Sena. Kejriwal, on the other hand, had alleged that Modi had informed his “friends” before announcing the decision on November 8.
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