A day after a united opposition observed Aakrosh Divas against demonetisation and Kerala’s ruling LDF observed a dawn-to-dusk hartal over the massive hit to its cooperative sector, former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy took to Facebook to quiz Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the issue.
On Tuesday, the former Chief Minister invoked the oft-repeated analogy with Muhammed bin Tughlaq, and wrote, “Prime Minister asked us to wait for 50 days, but the public is worried whether their misery will continue for months.”
He then posed four questions to the PM:
1) Did you ban Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes without knowing that 86% of the currency is in those denominations? If you did make an informed decision, then why were precautionary measures not taken to avoid a crisis?
2) Nearly Rs 200 crore is being withdrawn from 2 lakh ATMs in the country. Despite knowing that it was not practical to dispense new notes through these ATMs, why was no action taken to sort this out?
3) Article 300A of the Constitution gives citizens the right to hold as much wealth as they wish, if it is properly accounted for. In such a scenario, isn’t slapping a withdrawal limit against the law? How will the Prime Minister justify this act?
4) Who are you trying to help by putting the cooperative sector in jeopardy?
Oommen Chandy also accused Modi of implementing demonetisation only to help companies like Paytm and claimed that members of BJP and many corporate companies already knew about the move even before it was implemented.
“They didn’t lose their money, but the common man is struggling to meet day-to-day expenses,” Oommen Chandy wrote.
He added that the Kerala Chief Minister should direct the state’s Finance Minister to work with officials of RBI on solutions for the crisis, including the fate of the co-operative sector.
Chandy has attacked the Prime Minister previously too on the question of alleged advance notice to some individuals and companies about demonetization. Then, he had demanded that the transactions of these companies in the days just before demonetization be probed.
He had also come down heavily on Modi after the latter declined to meet an all-party delegation from Kerala to discuss the co-operative sector crisis.