Mumbai: Lashing out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the demonetisation decision, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday dubbed the move as “extortion of common man”.
He asked the BJP to take former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s words on the issue seriously as it came from a “renowned economist”.
Taking a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the saffron party alliance leader said, “I will not hesitate in taking a critical stand on the process in which demonetisation is being implemented.”
Mr Thackeray said that the former PM is a renowned economist. “His words and opinions should be taken seriously. The way money is being collected, it seems that money is being extorted from the common man. You have brought tears in the eyes of people who made you come to power with a lot of aspirations,” he said.
Mr Thackeray’s tirade is seen as yet another embarrassment for the BJP, as Sena had also participated in the march organised by Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee in Delhi to oppose Centre’s demonetisation move last week. “One person cannot take a decision for 125-crore people. Before taking the decision to demonetise the currency, people should have been taken into confidence,” Mr Thackeray said.
Slamming the BJP-government and Mr Modi over the demonetisation issue during Rajya Sabha debate on Thursday, Mr Singh said its implementation has been a “monumental management failure” and a case of “organised loot and legalised plunder”.
Mr Thackeray frowned upon the PM’s Narendra Modi App that sought feedback from the people on the scrapping of old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes. It was claimed that over 93 per cent people, who participated in the survey supported the move. “The way in which a referendum was sought in Britain before its withdrawal from the European Union, a survey is being done here. But seeing people’s response, their (UK) Prime Minister chose to step down. Will something similar happen here?” he said.
Criticising the Reserve Bank of India’s decision of not allowing district central co-operative (DCC) banks to exchange the old currency, the Sena chief asked if liquor baron Vijay Mallya had taken loans from these banks. “Did Vijay Mallya take loans from any of the DCC banks? Banks from which he did take loans, how have they been allowed to exchange the old currency?” he questioned.
However, BJP spokesperson Madhav Bhandari dismissed Mr Thackeray’s statements saying the common man is firmly behind Mr Modi on the demonetisations issue.
