MNS chief questions RSS, BJP's silence

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena president Raj Thackeray on Saturday questioned the silence of the RSS and BJP top leadership on the burning issue of demonetisation.

“Several RSS leaders were unhappy, many top BJP leaders too were confused over this decision... why was there no reaction from (RSS chief) Mohan Bhagwat and BJP leaders?” Raj said, addressing party workers in Mumbai.

Incidentally, Raj is an admirer of Narendra Modi and had even visited the prime minister’s home state to study the Gujarat model. But he is now extremely critical of the ban on Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, as announced by Modi on November 8.

“On the one hand, the prime minister undertook demonetisation to bring out black money, and on the other, (in Karnataka) Gali Janardhana Reddy spent Rs 500 crore on his daughter’s wedding,” he said.

“He (Modi) has asked for 50 days... hope something good happens... the decision he has taken, if it fails, then there will be a serious crisis in the country. Everyone knows who has got how much black money. Why didn’t the government take action against them instead of asking people to stand in long queues? So far, 40 people have died (due to the cash crunch),” he said. 

“Even the Supreme Court has expressed concern and pointed out that there could be riots... I had also shared the same concern a few days ago. If this demonetisation on Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes fails, the country will go back by 20-25 years.”

There is fake currency worth about Rs 500 crore in the country and real cash in the economy amounts to Rs 17 lakh crore, the MNS chief said. The government claims it had been planning the demonetisation programme for the past eight to 10 months, then why were the ATMs not recalibrated, he sought to know.

Raj also questioned why the BJP had so far not declared the expenses incurred by it in the 2014 Lok Sabha election campaign. “For months, there have been ads (in newspapers and television),” Raj said, adding that a clarification was awaited.

Sena comes to Azad’s defence
After expressing displeasure over the demonetisation drive, the Shiv Sena on Saturday seemed to defend Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad over his Uri comments, DHNS reports from Mumbai.
“The truth is not going to change if Azad apologises,” the Shiv Sena said in the wake of the BJP seeking an apology from Azad, who had said “Pakistani terrorists did not kill even half of our people in Uri than those who have died due to the government’s wrong (demonetisation) policy”.
“In the Uri (terror) attack, 20 jawans were martyred. Due to demonetisation, 40 brave patriots have laid down their lives (while standing in queues at banks to exchange demonetised notes or withdrawing money from ATMs)... they must be treated as martyrs,” read editorials in Saamana, Shiv Sena’s Marathi mouthpiece, and Dophar ka Saamna, its Hindi tabloid version.
The editorials stated that if the government still remained adamant, the number of victims due to inflation, recession and unemployment would rise from 40 to 40 lakh. It said the dead were “victims of patriotism”.