Stepping up the attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi after demonetisation, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday sought to know if he would resign if problems faced by the people did not ease by December 30, a date Mr. Modi had given for the situation to improve.
She was addressing a joint press conference against demonetisation with some political parties, led by the Congress.
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Even as he underlined that the Congress wanted the Prime Minister to accept his responsibility on the issue, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi eventually ended up tacitly endorsing Ms. Banerjee’s line when repeatedly questioned whether the Congress was backing her demand.
“Will you take off the cash withdrawal restrictions in three days? You said people should wait for 50 days. Three days remain for that. If after 50 days things don’t change, will the Prime Minister take responsibility and resign?” Ms. Banerjee said.
‘Arbitrary experiment’
Mr. Gandhi said: “The Prime Minister’s word should have some weight. He has personally given the demonetisation jolt to the people. It is the biggest arbitrary financial experiment ever in the world. What steps are going to be taken to fix responsibility? Mamataji has given one suggestion. But we say that he should tell the nation if he is responsible or not.”
‘Claims belied’
He wanted the government to tell the country what its policy aimed at. Successive claims that it would root out black money, and counterfeit currency, counter terror funding and, lastly, help turn India cashless had been belied.
“If he does not resign, we will put pressure on him to resign,” Mr. Gandhi added.
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