Demonetisation: Cracks appear within Opposition ranks

New Delhi: Amid efforts by Opposition parties to mount a joint offensive on the government on the issue of the sudden demonetisation, cracks surfaced on the issue of the proposed march by the Trinamul Congress to the President House. While the Congress and the Left parties distanced themselves from the public display of anger, TMC chief Mamata Banerjee was promised support by Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah.

The Opposition parties, which met here on the eve of the Winter Session of Parliament, have decided to meet again on Wednesday morning to thrash out the differences.

The meeting of the Opposition parties was attended by, among others, the Congress, Left parties, Trinamool Congress, NCP, DMK and the Janata Dal (United). Many Opposition leaders concluded that it was too early to visit the President on the issue and that it must first be raised at parliamentary forums.

Sources said that the reason for not agreeing to a march to the President House might be attributed to the fact that Left parties and the Congress, bitter political rivals of the TMC in West Bengal, are wary of being seen on a common platform of an initiative which was floated by Ms Banerjee.

Officially, though, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Congress leader in Rajya Sabha, maintained that had Parliament not been in session, the Opposition would have gone to meet the President. But as the two Houses were meeting for 30 days starting Wednesday, the issue should first be discussed and raised there. He said if the Opposition members’ demands were not fulfilled, other options could be explored.

Interestingly, CPI-M general secretary Sitaram Yechury said the proposed march to President House was not discussed in the meeting at all. Mohammed Salim, the CPI-M’s face in Lok Sabha, said that the Opposition would employ all alternative tools available in a democracy, including the demand for a joint parliamentary committee to look into the issue.    

Various parties have already given separate adjournment notices in the Lok Sabha and for suspension of proceedings in Rajya Sabha to discuss the issue.

Ms Banerjee, who landed in the capital Tuesday evening, said: “Tomorrow, I am meeting the President on demonetisation issue. I will be meeting him with 40 of my MPs.”

In a series of tweets earlier in the day, the TMC chief said that she had spoken with various political leaders and parties, including Rahul Gandhi, Nitish Kumar, Naveen Patnaik, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Arvind Kejriwal.

“If they want to join me, it is good. If not, then I will go alone with my MPs,” she said, adding that “the situation is serious. Very grim. People are suffering. We will meet the President tomorrow, no matter what”.

She met Mr Kejriwal after landing in Delhi and was promised support for the march. Ms Banerjee also came down heavily on the “desperate” attempt by the government to start what she branded as a “black mechanism” with indelible ink.

“This shows that this government distrusts the common people. Also, there are by-elections on Nov 19. What will the Election Commission say about this decision to put indelible on prospective voters?” she tweeted.

(Economic affairs secretary Shaktikanta Das has said that a small mark of indelible ink would be put on the right hand finger of those exchanging Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes for new ones from Wednesday. For voting, the mark is put on the left hand.)

The Congress, which despite its dwindling numbers is still the largest Opposition block, met for a strategy session before the Opposition meet and decided to forcefully take on the government on implementation of the demonetisation.

Sources said that top party leaders were of the view that information on the demonetisations was leaked to the BJP and that this issue should be raised in both houses of Parliament.

The party made a sharp attack on the Narendra Modi government alleging that the real agenda behind demonetisation was to mop up resources in order to bail out non-performing assets of banks which were owed by several industrialists.

The Congress’ Kapil Sibal made a strong allegation when he said, “Out of the roughly Rs 16,000 crore in the market, the government hopes to see Rs 10,000 crore placed in the banks. The balance Rs 6,000 would be generated by the RBI and placed at the disposal of the government and the real objective of that fund was to pay off the non-performing assets of banks.”