Though the left parties are a part of the seemingly united opposition to the demonetisation undertaken by the Centre, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) will not support the demand to roll-back the initiative.
Talking to reporters during an interaction on Saturday, Sitaram Yechury, General Secretary of CPI(M) said a roll back of the announcements and slew of restrictions will stop even the possibility of eliminating the 2 or 3 per cent of stacked ‘black’ money. “Our concern is the people, whose economic activities and livelihood have been stalled due to the announcements. We want old notes to be exchanged and used in a wider variety of activities,” he said.
On November 28, numerous opposition parties including the left parties, Trinamool National Congress, Indian National Congress have called for an “Akrosh Divas” (a day of anger) to express the inability of the Centre to restore economic activity after nearly 85 per cent of the country’s cash was scrapped. When asked if this would further inconvenience the public, Mr. Yechury said: “This is a call for protest action, not a bandh. The opposition will march separately, but strike together. Our point is to redress the anger of the people. It is demonetisation that has seen a bandh-like situation as economic activities have come to a standstill.”
The protest action was also to pressure Prime Minister Narendra Modi to address parliamentarians. “If he continues to remain silent (after November 28), the opposition parties will have to think seriously,” he said.
With distress spreading across the economic landscape, particularly in rural areas, the CPI(M) leader said the constant flip-flops, exemptions and barrage of notifications compounded the absurdity of demonetisation. “Farmers are selling crops in distress. The government believes that allowing old notes to buy seeds is a solution. But anyone familiar with agriculture, knows that farmers do not buy just from government outlet. They buy even from fellow farmers in a form of barter or cash transactions,” he said.
The demonetisation initiative has failed in all its four objectives (eradicating black money, reducing corruption, terror financing and putting an end to counterfeiting) and this failure would reflect in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, said Mr. Yechury.
