New Delhi: Barely a day after the Shiv Sena, a key ally of the NDA government at the Centre, joined a protest march to the Rashtrapati Bhavan with Opposition parties against the Centre’s demonetisation drive, Union home minister Rajnath Singh spoke to Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray and apparently conveyed unhappiness over the development.
However, the Sena stuck to its criticism, saying it could have been implemented in a better way.
“We are with the government in their fight against black money, but common man has been immensely troubled by the way the decision was implemented. The common man is not a thief. I have conveyed to Rajnath Singh that though their intentions were right, the decision could have been implemented in a much better way,” the Sena chief said in Mumbai.
The issue had triggered a political controversy as the Shiv Sena has been one of the oldest allies of the BJP. Despite this, it joined the protest march, which was led by West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress head Mamata Banerjee.
During his 10-minute telephonic conversation, the home minister is believed to have told the Sena chief that the move was avoidable, and joining hands with the Opposition against an ambitious scheme of the Centre would send wrong and confusing signals, specially when Parliament was in session.
The parties had complained to President Pranab Mukherjee that demonetisation was causing considerable hardship to the people.
Even as most parties who had joined the march sought the immediate withdrawal of the demonetisation exercise, the Shiv Sena demanded that the deadline for accepting old currency notes must be extended.
Shiv Sena leader Gajanan Kirtikar had said following the march on Thursday that while the party welcomed the demonetisation move, they were against the inconvenience being caused to people due to it.
“We have not signed the memorandum given to the President. We will submit a separate memorandum seeking redressal of the inconvenience caused to people. We also want the period to be extended,” Mr Kirtikar said.
