Demonetisation dust refuses to settle

After keeping low for the past few months, the BJP’s maverick Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy has launched a fresh attack against his bête noire finance minister Arun Jaitley. After the Narendra Modi government’s decision on demonetisation of high denomination currency notes led to widespread chaos at banks across the country, Mr Swamy got an opportunity to renew his demand for Mr Jaitley’s exit from the government on the plea that his ministry had not made adequate arrangements for the availability of sufficient funds in banks. While Mr Swamy’s diatribe against Mr Jaitley is understandable given that the two are not on the best of terms, a large number of unhappy BJP members are also said to be in agreement with the controversial MP.

Mr Jaitley, however, is unfazed over these attacks as he enjoys the full support of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Moreover, the same BJP members, who are privately criticising the finance minister, are lining up to give him suggestions on how the government can mop up black money in the market, including the revival of the Income Declaration Scheme, which allows people to declare their unaccounted funds without any explanation. Others are seeking the minister’s advice on handling large amounts of money, ostensibly on behalf of a relative or a friend. But Mr Jaitley can see through the ruse, having figured out their real motives from their crestfallen faces and the tone adopted by them.

Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad triggered uproarious scenes in the Rajya Sabha last week when he pointed to the number of people who had died waiting in queues outside banks to access their money, stating that these many deaths were not reported even after the terror attack on an Army base in Uri. Needless to say, the BJP members seized upon this statement to launch a frontal attack against Mr Azad and sought an apology from him for his “anti-national” remarks. This confrontation, however, did not end in the Rajya Sabha but continued outside. Information and broadcasting minister M. Venkaiah Naidu, who was most agitated over Mr Azad’s statement, got into a slanging match with Congress Rajya Sabha member Jairam Ramesh. While

Mr Naidu insisted that the Congress leader had crossed the lakshman rekha, Mr Ramesh argued that the BJP minister was deliberately distorting Mr Azad’s remarks. The heated exchange of words continued for some time till Mr Ramesh ended it up by telling the voluble Naidu: “The trouble is that you have always misunderstood me while I have never understood you.”

When Congress leader Amarinder Singh was Punjab chief minister, he had unilaterally terminated a river-sharing agreement with Haryana, which also involved the construction of the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal. Although the decision had embarrassed the Congress-led ruling coalition then, Mr Singh had consolidated his position both in the party and the state by emerging as the real champion of interests of Punjab.

Mr Singh got a fresh opportunity to position himself as the chief protector of his home state when he resigned his Lok Sabha seat when his 2004 decision was struck down by the Supreme Court and addressed a series of press conferences vowing to fight for the people of Punjab. But Delhi chief minister and Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal, who is hoping to steal a march over the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal and the Congress in next year’s Punjab Assembly elections, moved quickly to deny Mr Singh the privilege of emerging as the hero of Punjab. His tech-savvy party lost no time in using social media to circulate an old photograph, which shows that Mr Singh was present when Indira Gandhi laid the foundation stone of the SYL canal at Kapoori village in 1982. Needless to say, Mr Singh is on the defensive after the photograph went viral.

West Bengal chief minister and Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee’s proposal that all Opposition parties march to Rashtrapati Bhavan on November 16 to petition against the Modi government’s decision to ban high-denomination currency notes, got support from the Aam Aadmi Party, the Shiv Sena and the National Conference only. The others, including the Congress and the Left parties, stayed away as they obviously did not want to give credit to Ms Banerjee for taking a lead in this matter. Although Arvind Kejriwal participated in the march, he was obviously not willing to allow

Ms Banerjee to grab all the limelight. When Mr Kejriwal and Ms Banerjee addressed a joint meeting at New Delhi’s Azadpur mandi last week to highlight the suffering of the common man, the West Bengal chief minister’s photograph was missing from the posters at the venue while there was only a passing reference to her in the speeches made by the AAP leaders whose main focus was on Mr Kejriwal’s role in the ongoing battle against the Modi government. But Ms Banerjee sent out a clear message to Mr Kejriwal that he should not assume sole ownership of this issue in her speech. Stating that there were no leadership or ego issues in the crusade for the poor, Ms Banerjee declared, “I am even willing to accept the leadership of a rickshaw puller in this fight.”