Bengaluru: Congress leader in the Lok Sabha, M. Mallikarjun Kharge, on Monday cautioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi against making fun of people who stand in long queues. “If things fail to change in the next couple of days, people will rise against the Prime Minister,” he warned.
After inaugurating a five-day photo exhibition on demonetisation by senior photo journalist K. Venkatesh here, Mr Kharge said, “Soon after demonetisation, Mr Modi started ridiculing everyone, including those who have died and those standing in queues to withdraw their own money. This is not the right approach towards people. They are standing in queues because of an ill-thought and unplanned scheme like demonetisation. If Mr Modi does not change his attitude, the people are not going to pardon him for his horribly blundered scheme. He must not forget that the day is not too far when people rise against him."
Lashing out at the BJP's strategy of countering critics of demonetisation by raising the bogey of patriotism, he said, “Nobody needs to learn lessons on patriotism from the BJP. Everyone living in this country is a patriot. They have proved it time and again. It was put to test during Lal Bahaddur Shatry's time and people cutting across social strata accepted his decision to sacrifice a meal once a week to feed our jawans. This is how the people of this country have proved their patriotism. Now, the BJP is trying to say that standing in queues is patriotism! This is not patriotism. What the BJP has begot is an enormous blunder that was done without proper thinking," he said.
Taking a swipe at Mr Modi's aim to turn the country into a cashless economy, he said that the Prime Minister is trying to help his friends in the industry by pushing for cashless economy. “Even if all those who possess cards (3.3 crore cardholders) in this country go cashless, by 2019-20 end, charges from the card would run into nearly Rs 50,000 crore and this will only be pocketed by entities like Pay to Modi (PayTM)," he said.
