Patna: Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) President Lalu Prasad on Wednesday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has "pushing the country backward" through his decision to scrap high value currency notes in the name of fighting black money.
Addressing a RJD 'mahadharna', Prasad said he would announce the date of a rally against demonetisation within a week, in which, he would invite all non-BJP parties on one platform on the issue of recall of the demonetised Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 denomination bank notes.
RJD alone participated in the dharna against demonetisation on Wednesday and its two allies in the state, the JD(U) and Congress stayed away.
While JD(U) President and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had said that the party would analyse the demonetisation decision on completion of 50 days of the drive, Congress though extending a moral support to RJD, kept away from stir.
Addressing the 'mahadharna', Prasad said, "Every party has its own agitation programme but the entire opposition is one in protesting demonetisation."
"Though all the opposition parties have their own agitation programme against demonetisation, all of them would converge at the 'chauraha' (public square) and the Prime Minister could choose a 'Chauraha' of his liking where the people could punish him for derailing the country through scrapping of notes," he said.
"I will invite all opposition parties together at the proposed rally against demonetisation which the RJD would organise in Patna and it would be their choice to attend or not," he said.
"Modi has pushed the country backward through his decision to scrap high value currency notes in the name of fighting black money," Prasad said.
Although no other parties came with RJD in today's mahadharna, Prasad in a bid to reach out to prominent leaders of different parties mentioned issues raised by JD(U), Rahul Gandhi and Mamata Banerjee on demonetisation.
Prasad echoed the issue of large-scale land purchases by BJP in Bihar ahead of demonetisation, an issue which had also been raised by JD(U).
On Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi's allegation that Narendra Modi had received about Rs 44 crore from Sahara when he was the Gujarat Chief Minister, he asked the prime minister to reply to the query instead of making fun of Gandhi.
"If the allegation that Rahul Gandhi is making is not true why don't you file a defamation suit against him in the Supreme Court?" the RJD chief asked.
Besides the state capital, RJD also held sit-in demonstrations in all district headquarters of the state against the demonetisation decision of the Modi government.
