Demonetisation: Samajwadi Party blames BJP of harming rival political parties

Ruling Samajwadi Party on Sunday said the demonetisation decision of the Narendra Modi government smacked of an attempt at “financially harming” rival political parties ahead of Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.

But, people who are facing severe hardships because of the note ban will “punish” BJP in the Assembly elections and teach the saffron party a lesson, SP National Vice President Kironmay Nanda said here.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s demonetisation move is aimed at financial harming rival political parties in 2017 UP Assembly polls. This poll is a do or die for BJP. BJP thought that due to impact of demonetisation, rival parties in the state will not be able to withdraw money for polls,” Nanda told PTI in an interview.

“BJP does not know that this step is going to be ‘atmghati’ (suicidal) for the party. People who are standing in long queues for getting their own money will vote against BJP to vent their ire,” he said.

While making it clear that SP is not against a curb on black money, the senior SP MP said the way in which demonetisation has been done showed “inexperience” of policy makers.

“This is creating problems for common man and SP is against it,” he said.

“In this vast country four out of every five village do not have banking facilities. Villagers there depend on the rich for their money needs. Due to demonetisation labourers are not getting job and they are starving. Centre has not given these issues a thought before banning 86 per cent of the currency,” he said.

“The way in which Union Finance Ministry is changing rules on daily basis only showed that they were not ready to deal with the impact of demonetisation move,” he said.