Trinamool Congress legislators met President Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday and told him that Narendra Modi had imposed a “super emergency”-like situation with his decision to demonetise Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes. They also accused the Bharatiya Janata party government at the Centre of engaging in “vendetta politics”, PTI reported. Thursday’s meeting was the third of its kind between Mukherjee and TMC representatives about the note ban imposed by the Centre on November 8.
The 30-member delegation urged Mukherjee to intervene and said the situation had turned “grim”. “After outlining the grim situation, we first had called this [demonetisation] a financial emergency. Today, we believe, as we share [concern] with the President, this is now a super emergency,” said Rajya Sabha member Derek O’Brien. The legislators also walked from South Avenue to Rashtrapati Bhawan to protest against demonetisation.
O’Brien said that two party leaders were recently arrested for their connections with scams because of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s opposition to the government’s demonetisation move. While Sudip Badyopadhyay was arrested for his involvement in the Saradha chit fund scam, actor-turned-politician Tapas Pal was taken into custody for his role in the Rose Valley scam. “Timing of what is happening is political vendetta. This is low life, the kind of political vendetta this country has never seen,” O’Brien said.
The Centre is “hounding” TMC leaders, but the party is not “scared a bit” by the dirty tricks of the BJP, he said. “This only strengthens our resolve to fight them politically and to bring some respite to the pain which is being caused to millions across this country,” O’Brien added. The legislators said the government was misusing power to stifle the opposition’s voice. They also called the CBI the conspiracy bureau of India. The CBI had arrested both the TMC leaders. “This deplorable and vindictive policy dishonours the sacred principles of our Constitutional democracy and is detrimental to national interest,” the party said in the memorandum submitted to the President.
O’Brien said that though Modi had promised on November 14 that the cash crunch situation in the country would improve in 50 days, the situation has “worsened” instead. He said the move had affected 25 crore daily wage earners, fishermen, farmers, plantation workers, housewives, students, retailers and traders, and led to 35% job loss in the micro and small scale industries. “[Besides] There have been 120 deaths, we hold the prime minister accountable and responsible for it,” O’Brien said.
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