Note ban: Oppn protests outside Parliament, wants Modi in House

New Delhi: The opposition parties on Wednesday put up a united front against the Centre over the issue of demonetisation, as they formed a giant human chain outside the Parliament chanting slogans and carrying placards, fervently demanding Prime Minister Narendra Modi's presence in the House.

The chain began from the entrance of the Parliament near the media stand and stretched across the Mahatma Gandhi statue.

"The nation is standing in line and we are doing just that here," Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi said.

Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Derek O'Brien, Janata Dal (United)'s Sharad Yadav, and the DMK's Kanimozhi were among the almost 200 Opposition MPs gathered in Parliament premises.

"Not a surgical strike, but carpet bombing on people", "Stop the persecution of common people" and "Save poor people", were some of the slogans on the placards held by the leaders.

Meanwhile, senior Union Ministers Rajnath Singh and Ananth Kumar are holding a meeting in Venkaiah Naidu's chamber to decide the government's strategy in Parliament.

Later in the day, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) will stage a sit-in protest at Jantar Mantar in Delhi at 12:30 pm pressing Prime Minister Narendra Modi to rollback the policy in view of inconvenience caused to the general public.

On Tuesday, in an emotional speech before BJP MPs, Modi vehemently defended the demonetisation, saying it was done for the benefit of the people.

Addressing the BJP Parliamentary Party, he urged the MPs to counter what he called was "misinformation" being spread by the opposition parties on the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.

The Prime Minister also launched a survey on his Narendra Modi mobile app over demonetisation and asked the nation to rate the move by answering 10 questions.