Moradabad: Targeted relentlessly over the demonetisation move, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday assured the “poor” of India that he was considering transferring money of the corrupt to their accounts. He also asked the “poor” not to return the money deposited in their Jan Dhan accounts by the “rich and corrupt”.
Saying that being a “fakir” he has nothing to fear, Mr Modi, amidst thunderous applause, delivered his punch line — “Jhola le kar aye hain, johla lekar chale jayenge (I came with little belongings, I will leave with them).”
For him the argument that a large part of India was still technically challenged and cannot go digital was “untrue” since “the same people elected a new government by pushing a button”.
He spoke of reports of a video going viral where even a beggar flashed out a swipe machine after a man told him that he has no change.
Addressing the BJP’s Parivartan Yatra launched to garner support for the forthcoming UP polls at Moradabad, the Prime Minister said; “All the Jan Dhan account holders should not return the money that others have put in your accounts. If you promise to do so, I am working hard to devise a formula to send all those who deposited their money illegally into your accounts to jail and to ensure the money goes to the poor households.”
This newspaper had earlier reported that the government was considering depositing a minimum of Rs 10,000 to the zero balance Jan Dhan accounts before the forthcoming assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh.
Claiming to expose those changed tune with time, Mr Modi asserted he would “fix those who used to chant ‘money, money’ earlier and are now saying ‘Modi, Modi’.”
Refusing to budge from his stand and taking his critics head on, Mr Modi accused the Opposition of spreading “lies and disinformation”. Responding to reports and criticism of long queues outside banks and ATMs, the Prime Minister asserted that “this will be the last queue for the people who have been standing in lines for the last 70 years for their daily needs”.
In fact Mr Modi went on to “salute” people of the country for standing in queues for hours together. He contended that only the “honest” were standing in queues while the corrupt were standing outside the houses of poor.
“The corrupt are not being able to go to banks and deposit their ill-gotten wealth. They are now queuing up outside the houses of the poor to misuse their Jan Dhan accounts,” he said.
Claiming that he was being “hounded” for launching a crusade against the corrupt, the Prime Minister pledged that his fight against corruption “will not stop come what may.”
Launching into a question-answer mode, the Prime Minister asked the crowd, “Is it a crime to fight corruption which has been plaguing the country for the last 70 years?”
Hitting out at Congress(without naming it) and former Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, Mr Modi said that people of the country were his leaders and that he has no high command.
