Chennai: Leader of Opposition M. K. Stalin on Wednesday led Opposition parties, including the Congress, in Tamil Nadu in observing the first anniversary of demonetisation as “Black Day” by holding protests against the BJP-led NDA Government in Madurai.
DMK, Congress and Left parties held separate protests across Tamil Nadu and tore into the Narendra Modi dispensation for the “ill-conceived” move which only brought more hardship to the people than any good.
Leading the protests in Madurai after cancelling the event in Chennai due to recent rains, Stalin, clad in a black shirt, directed his criticism at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the move saying “we lost the freedom that” we got on the midnight of August 15, 1947 in the midnight of November 8, 2016. Senior Congress leader Peter Alphonse, who led the party’s agitation in Pallavaram in Chennai, said the only achievement of demonetisation was to “bring the people of India onto the streets in just one day.”
The demonstrations were held as part of the decision taken by Congress and 16 other political parties to observe November 8 as “Black Day” to protest demonetisation.
Not just Stalin, almost all top leaders of the DMK, including his half-sister Kanimozhi and senior leaders Durai Murugan, led the protests in Coimbatore and Tiruchirapalli respectively. Wearing black bands on their shirts and shouting slogans against demonetisation and Modi, DMK cadre across the state participated in large numbers in the demonstrations.
Left parties – CPI and CPI (M) -- also held protests across the state with their leaders leading the demonstrations in various cities.
“This day (November 8) has just turned to be a day that brought despair to 125 crore people of the country although they (BJP) promised they will eradicate black money,” Stalin told the gathering in Madurai, while Kanimozhi told cadre in Coimbatore that demonetisation did not bring any benefit to the people that the Union Government claimed would happen once the move is implemented.
“Demonetisation only troubled small and medium enterprises, traders, and daily wagers who are yet to recover from its impact. Many labourers who were thrown out of work were yet to find employment as the economy had not grown as expected,” Kanimozhi said.
Peter Alphonse accused the NDA Government of “misleading” the nation by implementing demonetisation at the stroke of the midnight without consulting anyone. “For days together, millions of people went without any money in their wallet. People starved and did not even have money to buy basic things like milk and provision. Is this the success of demonetisation? And they kept changing the goalposts on the motive behind the move,” he told a public meeting in Chennai.
