New Delhi: Opposition parties’ ‘Jan Aakrosh Diwas’, on Monday to protest against the poor implementation of the Centre’s demonetisation scheme picked up pace. While banks, schools, government offices and so on were expected to function regularly, services were affected in a few states.
The Congress, which had made the first call for the countrywide demonstration, clarified on Sunday that it had not called for a Bharat bandh. “There will be protest rallies; we have not called for a ‘Bharat bandh’,” senior party leader Jairam Ramesh said, accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre of spreading misinformation.
Modi had said on Sunday, “I am blocking black money and corruption and some are giving call for Bharat bandh. Should there be Bharat bandh or should the route of corruption be blocked?”
Congress leaders in Delhi will march from Mandi House to the Parliament on Monday as part of the protest. Other Opposition parties, including the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh, Left Democratic Front in Kerala and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in Tamil Nadu, later joined the protests. In Tripura, banks, schools and colleges, private offices and stores remained closed as the Left-ruled government called for a 12-hour strike against demonetisation. Congress workers were detained for holding protests in Jammu, and DMK treasurer and other party workers were taken into preventive custody by the police in Chennai. Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi and leaders of other parties, including DMK, Communist Party of India and the Rashtriya Janata Dal, protested at the statue of Mahatma Gandhi outside the Parliament building.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, however, had said she would not participate because she felt people had been inconvenienced enough by the demonetisation decision. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who has supported the scrapping of the high-value notes, had said his Janata Dal(United), too, would not join the protests. The Telangana Rashtra Samithihas, Haryana’s Indian National Lok Dal and the Karnataka Congress backed out of Jan Akrosh Diwas as well.
