Demonetisation: AIADMK comes down heavily on Prime Minister

Listing a set of questions over demonetisation and its implications, AIADMK said, “the Prime Minister who is supposed to answer all these questions is slighting the Constitution and democracy by seeking to explain about it only in places other than the Parliament.” “..Having many loopholes (in implementing demonetisation), the BJP’s claim to root out black money is like cultivation of desert by drawing water using a bucket that has a sieve for its bottom,” the ruling party in the state said in its Tamil mouthpiece, ‘Dr Namadhu MGR.’ Besides comparing the  effort to root out black money with a vain bid to draw water using a bucket full of holes, the AIADMK also claimed that people were incensed at such an exercise of “sham.”

Mocking the BJP, it said the party men do not “shine in their work” and it was a known fact that their “action does not commensurate with their big talk.” The mouthpiece said people were “angry,” that the demonetisation move had been “reportedly leaked to many,” and a Gujarati daily had even published beforehand about it. AIADMK said people were incensed by norms like an upper limit even for withdrawals for weddings. Stating that there were “confusing announcements,” and a “daily notification,” specifying norms for deposits and withdrawal of scrapped notes, the party said people have reached at a “boiling point,” even as holidays were declared by banks to “hide non-receipt of (adequate) currency.” It termed the RBI’s directive immediately after demonetisation that cooperative banks cannot accept scrapped notes, as “discriminatory” since lakhs of farmers were part of such cooperatives. AIADMK alleged that micro, small trade was facing sluggishness and mills were curtailing their work force. The ruling party also referred to other issues like the Indian rupee hitting a record low level against USD (on November 24) besides Nepal banning new Indian Rs 500, Rs 2,000 notes and alleged quality issues in the new notes.

Puducherry Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) would organise demonstrations in front of post offices in all the Assembly segments on Monday to condemn the demonetisation of high value currencies of Rs 1,000 and Rs 5,00 by the Centre. The Executive committee meeting of the PCC held here late on Saturday took a decision to this effect. Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasamy, PWD Minister and PCC president A Namassivayam and party functionaries were among others who attended the meeting.