The Congress legislators, elected representatives of local bodies, party workers and the office-bearers of DCC staged a massive rally in the city on Monday, protesting against the grave hardships caused to the people due to the haphazard and unplanned implementation of note ban by the Union government.
The party workers and leaders took out a procession from the railway station, which passed through JLB Road, Dasappa Circle, Dhanvantri Road, Narayana Shastri Road, Devaraj Urs Road, Metropole Circle, Hunsur Road, and culminated at deputy commissioner’s office.
The protesters raised slogans against the Central government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The agitating Congress workers alleged that demonetisation of high denomination notes has put the people, farmers and daily wagers in particular, to grave hardships. They said that President Pranab Mukherjee should intervene in the interest of common man, and bail out the people from the current confusions post-demonetisation.
Congress leader and former MP A H Vishwanath said, “Narendra Modi does not believe in Indian economy, coins, notes and religion. By scrapping the high denomination notes, he has left people in the lurch. Financial experts claim that demonetisation is another way of looting. Those who question or condemn the move are being termed as traitors. It was the Congress party which strived for the freedom of the country and not the BJP. What you have done now is nothing short of treason,” he alleged.
The former MP, known for straight-talk, continuing his tirade against BJP, said, “By spreading false information, BJP is misusing the social media. Those who condemn the anti-people policies of the Centre are being projected in a bad light. The party is trying to divert the people to conceal its errors and faults. There is a possibility of 1% decline in the GDP of the country, he added.
He also targeted Modi for failing to bring back the black money stashed in the Swiss banks. Instead, he has struck an agreement with the Swiss government seeking details of those who deposit money in Swiss banks from Sept 2018 to Sept 2019. Narendra Modi should clarify the issue, he demanded.
Minister Tanveer Sait said, the demonetisation move is to benefit a few industrialists of the country. The BJP-led NDA government at the Centre has waived loans extended to corporates to the tune of a few lakh crores, he alleged. The new notes that are in circulation has many discrepencies. The voters will teach a befitting lesson to the BJP in the next elections, he added.
MLAs M K Somashekar, Vasu, MLC Narayanaswamy, AICC observer Jetti Kusum Kumar, MLC Dharmasena, former MLA M Satyanarayana, Zoo Authority of Karnataka (ZAK) Chairperson Mallige Veeresh, MyLac Chairman H A Venkatesh, Karnataka Exhibition Authority Chairman B Siddaraju, DCC president B J Vijay Kumar, city unit president T S Ravishankar and others were present.
