Contending that his party was ideologically opposed to the BJP, DMK working president M.K. Stalin on Wednesday said that an alliance between the two would never happen.
Addressing the “black day” demonstration in Madurai, organised by the Opposition to mark the first anniversary of demonetisation, Mr. Stalin, clad in a black shirt, described Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting with DMK patriarch M. Karunanidhi at the latter’s residence in Gopalapuram as a courtesy call.
“Some sections of the media, with a motive to create confusion, gave a twist that the DMK had joined hands with the BJP. This will never happen, as the DMK is ideologically opposed to the policies of the BJP,” he asserted, drawing loud cheers from party members taking part in the demonstration.
Alleging that the “wrong policies” of the BJP had doomed the economy and resulted in millions losing their jobs, Mr. Stalin said small industrial units had lost their business and shut shop. “Demonetisation benefitted only the friends of the BJP and not the masses, as claimed by the Centre,” he charged, recalling the views of economists such as the former Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, Raghuram Rajan, and former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha.
Comparing the situation under the current BJP dispensation with the one that prevailed during the Emergency, Mr. Stalin said the BJP’s stated objective of eliminating black money had not been achieved.
In Coimbatore, DMK MP Kanimozhi castigated the Centre, saying demonetisation was a “cyclone that turned the life of the people upside down.”
Asserting that the government would pay a heavy price in the election for inflicting demonetisation and imposing the Goods and Services Tax (GST) on the people, she said, “The benefits of demonetisation as claimed by the Centre have not materialised. Digital transactions have not picked up, GDP is down, and there is no let-up in terrorist activities. Instead, it has further troubled small and medium enterprises, traders and daily wagers, who are yet to recover from its impact.”
Ms. Kanimozhi said many labourers who were thrown out of work were yet to find employment, as the economy had not grown as expected.
TNCC president Su. Thirunavukkarasar led a demonstration in Chennai. In Kancheepuram, the West district unit of the Congress distributed pamphlets containing former Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram’s observations about the demonetisation exercise.
Protests were held across the State, with the Opposition parties organising demonstrations condemning the implementation of GST.
(With inputs from Karthik Madhavan in Coimbatore and B. Kolappan in Chennai)
