The first session of Rajya Sabha’s winter session began with the opposition slamming BJP government in the light of recent currency ban. Amidst a stormy debate, opposition leaders united against the Centre. They tried pressurizing the government to revoke its decision on demonetization of old Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes from the Indian market. PM Narendra Modi, who was surprisingly absent from the session, requested all the political parties to support his government’s crusade against black money, illegal transaction and corruption.
Opposition Leaders Came Up with Creative Ways to Express their Displeasure
Meanwhile, some interesting incidents happened in and outside the parliament. While NDA alliance Shiva Sena joined hands with the opposition against demonetisation, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee directed a protest rally to Rashtrapati Bhawan, asking President Pranab Mukherjee to interfere in this issue. Contrary to this, Ghulam Nabi Azad and BSP Supremo Mayawati requested the PM to attend the next session of the House debate, as it is a sensitive issue for the nation.
In short the entire session was a jumbled up mess of aggression, accusations, counter-statements and a few rational words put up by some members, who were genuinely thoughtful of public problems. Here is what happened:
- 10:51 am– PM said government is ready to discuss on any issue.“When the country stands together, good and fast decisions are taken. In this Session also, there will be good discussion and discussions on a lot of issues”.
- 10:56 am– Majeed Memon from NCP informed the media his party members will not attend TMC’s protest march.
- 11:00 am– Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien began the session. House members condoled demise of Shimon Peres.
- 11:06 am– BSP Supremo demanded parliamentary panel on demonetisation.
- 11:17 am– Uproar erupted in the House as TMC MP Derek O’Brien starts shouting despite Kurien allowing a discussion on the issue.
- After 11:30– Anand Sharma from Congress put up fiery statements, questioning the current government’s intensions:” We are all against black money, terrorism. The cash-to-GDP ratio is 12 percent in India. The labourers and farmers of this country do not use credit cards and do not have cheque books. 86% of the currency in the markets was 500/1000 notes, was scrapped by just one announcement. Was it all black? Can govt. tell us about a dhaba where a person carries card-swiping machine? Poori duniya mein ek sandesh gaya ki Hindustan ki economy kaale dhan pe chalti hai. Other countries have issued advisory about visiting India. This is financial anarchy. Prime Minister Modi may be living on a different planet”, he said.
- 12:14– Union Minister of Energy Piyush Goyal defended his Government saying,
” I don’t know many shers like Anand Sharma But I think Anand Sharma does not know much about economics. If his claim of fight against black money is true, he would not have ignored the fact the entire country has welcomed this move by the Narendra Modi government. The honest have been respected, the corrupt have suffered loss“.
“When the government had just come to power in 2014, there was an atmosphere against corruption. Some people just seem to be unhappy that Prime Minister Modi has taken an important step against corruption and black money. Finance Minister had informed the House only about the counterfeit money in the economy, not the money which some people have got through corruption. This move was aimed at only the corrupt. The government has taken many steps against corruption. Demonetisation was a historic step against corruption. This was also a warning to the corrupt that the black money they had was useless now. Some people had suggested that this move should have been made public seven days before implementing it. But secrecy is most important in such issues. In the future, inflation will be controlled when more people pay taxes. The central government will also get more resources for the welfare of farmers, labourers, youth, women in the country. This step is a celebration of honesty No honest person will suffer because of this.”
- 12:16 to 12:42– Mayawati and Ghulam Nabi Azad requested the PM to attend the next session.
- 12:49– SP Member Ram Gopal Yadav assumed an aggressive stand against government.
” I feel that common people have suffered a lot because of this. Several crore vegetables were just thrown away per day from markets. Who gave you the advice to come up with the Rs 2000 note? Go outside Delhi to the villages of India. Nobody will accept that note. Goyal sahab was saying that the people are happy. If you go to the villages today and ask for votes, the women there will use the belan (rolling pins) which they use to make rotis and hit you Akhilesh Yadav had written a letter to the prime minister. He had given a very good suggestion of establishing a mobile bank”.
- 14:23– AIADMK MP A Naveenthakrishnan compared money to God and accused RBI for ruining the economy of India.
” Money is the modern God. Without money, one cannot survive in this world. The RBI is custodian of Indian economy. With regard to rural India, RBI totally failed. The RBI did not improve the condition of rural Indians“.
- 14:56– JDU MP Sharad Yadav criticized NDA’s move.
“Aapne khud hi Bharat bandh karva diya. The people in the country are in great pain. Pickpocketing is on the rise in the country. Banks need to be prepared for this situation. Conduct a joint parliamentary committee investigation into this issue”.
- 15:03– CPIM General Secretary Sitamram Yechury expressed his concern over cashless economy.
“”The government either does not know about the difficulties today or they are silent about them. We’ve also seen demonetisation. What was demonetised was a Rs 1000 note which we had not seen because it was almost nowhere in circulation. The country today is living on cash transactions of 14 percent. We want black money controlled. We want it eliminated. The World Bank says that nearly 21 percent of the Indian economy is in the black economy”.
- 16:09– Mayawati condemned Modi’s decision.
“The decision was taken without planning because of which the poor and the middle class are facing difficulties. Before demonetisation, the government had said that they had done ten months of planning. Ten months is a long time. If they had been serious about the planning, this chaos would not have taken place”.
- 17:30– Minister of Urban Development Naidu defended his government.
“PM Modi has political will and intention. The entire nation is happy with the step. No one has ever questioned Narendra Modi’s intention. Across the world, the step taken by the BJP government is being hailed as a strong, decisive and a good step. Except you (Congress) who keeps oscillating between supporting the move and criticising it, more or less everyone is happy with the move. As far as difficulties are concerned, child birth is not easy at all. But once the child is born, the mother’s happiness knows no bound”, he said.
Seeing immense confusion amongst member, Chairman Kurien adjourned the session until 2pm tomorrow. With this, we look forward to PM appearing in the next session. He has some serious explaining to do!
