Parliament Diary: JD-U leaders striking discordant notes on demonetisation

All’s not well within the JD(U) and the cracks in the party have surfaced ever since the demonetisation. This became even more apparent after JD(U) President Sharad Yadav stopped attending the informal meeting with Opposition leaders of the Rajya Sabha when he was asked to clarify his party’s stand on demonetisation. Incidentally, Bihar CM and JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar has been supporting PM Narendra Modi from Day 1. However, Mr Yadav was seen attending the Opposition’s protest against the currency ban. The Opposition parties then asked Opposition leader of the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad to have a chat with the JD(U) president. Mr Yadav is believed to have told Mr Azad that the party had not formally deliberated on the issue and would take a few days to decide what its stand was.

TDP MP joins Opp. protest in creative outfit

While the Union government is trying to woo TDP leader and chief minister of Andhra Pradesh Chandrababu Naidu to pledge his support to demonetisation, his party members are doing just the opposite. On Tuesday, while the rest of the Opposition party MPs came to the well of the House, NDA-supporting TDP also joined in. TDP not only supports the NDA, it has one member of the party in the Union Cabinet too. Among those protesting, one that caught the eye was the creative protest of TDP MP Dr Shivaprasad Naramalli. He came to the House in an outfit where one half of his shirt and trousers were black and the other half had pictures of farmers who were crying for help due to the distress caused by demonetisation. The morale of the Opposition parties was so boosted by the presence of an alliance partner in their protest, that they started creating a ruckus with renewed vigour.

Opposition to unite against note ban on Twitter

Opposition parties have decided to not only raise their voices against demonetisation in the House, but to also start a collective campaign on Twitter. In a meeting of Opposition leaders it was decided that it was important to make their voice heard on social media too. The plan now is that individual parties will launch separate campaigns, but will use a common hashtag so that people understand that it’s from a common Opposition.