Mysore Bank Circle in Bengaluru has been witness to umpteen number of protests over the years. However on Friday, the public was witness to a rather unusual mode of agitation- they took part in performing the last rites of a cashless ATM.
Over a month after Prime Minister’s demonetisation, people across the country continue to bear the brunt of it in the form of long queues at ATMs or cashless ATMs.
In a protest led by JD(U) in Bengaluru, protestors performed death ceremony (thithi) of a dummy ATM, in memory of the many ATMs that had ceased to serve their purpose.
Deccan Herald reports that the ATM was garlanded and the ceremony was performed as per the Hindu traditions, in which nearly 100 people took part.
Post the ceremony, laddoos and vadas were distributed as prasada.
No, the protestors refuse to limit their agitation to the state. They are set to send the thithi prasada to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Finance Minister Arunn Jaitley through courier, so that they too get a dose of the common man’s woes.
“For the past one month, we have been facing problems due to demonetisation. To add to our woes, ATMs are not functioning. While the rich are accumulating currency illegally, the poor are deprived of even small amounts of cash," Kumar Jahgirdar, President, Child Rights and Shared Parenting told DH.
Earlier, similar agitations were reported from Kerala and Tamil Nadu, with wreaths being placed outside a closed ATM, and a women's group in Tamil Nadu conducted pooja outside a cashless ATM.