Mamata Banerjee asks PM Modi what's on his mind? Kejriwal calls for rollback within 3 days

Addressing a rally of traders, farmers and labourers at Delhi's Azadpur Mandi on 17 November, Mamata Banerjee and Arvind Kejriwal took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his demonetisation inititative to curb black money and counter terrorism.

Mamata Banerjee went on to criticise Shantikanta Das' new demonetisation rule of bringing down the withdrawal limit from banks back to Rs 2000 from Rs 4500, said, "Iske dimaag mein kya hain? (What is on his mind?)."

Commenting on the fall of the GDP, Mamata said this initiative has incurred a great loss to the present GDP and "aage toh chhodo, desh ko peecha kar diya. (Forget about taking it ahead, he has taken the country behind)".

"This is India, here 4% use plastic money, what about the remaining 96%? This is not an ego battle. This is about the problems of the people. Trucks stranded on the border,vegetables rotting in them. If sabzi mandi doesn't work, what will people eat? Diamonds, ATMs?" she asked PM Modi.

Calling the situation like the Emergency, Mamata Banerjee reiterated saying "If you have courage, send us to jail or shoot us. But we will continue fighting. We will not allow the poor to go hungry. We will continue to fight for this country. If this decision (demonetisation) is not taken back in 3 days, we will intensify our protest. Modi ji please don't mind. If secret voting's done, your own party won't vote for you, not even your family."

Meanwhile, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal asserted that the move to demonetise higher denomination notes does not serve the purpose of curbing black money.

"If this move was really against corruption, Aam Aadmi Party would have been the first party to stand with the Prime Minister. We have fought against corruption and black money for a long time now," Kejriwal said.

"People have started taking a bribe in new currency. People are not being able to buy food, medicine. How will Rs 2000 notes help end corruption? It will only double corruption," he added.

Speaking about SBI writing off loans of 60 willful defaulters, including that of Vijay Mallya, Kejriwal attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying,"PM Modi has helped Vijay Mallya leave the country secretly. This is the biggest scam since independent India. Mallya is now enjoying. This is a scam worth Rs 8 lakh crore.We thought the PM was honest. But the last few instances and documents are telling a different story."

Kejriwal and Mamata's rally of farmers, traders and labourers comes a day after he urged President Pranab Mukherjee to direct the Centre to withdraw the demonetisation move while demanding a Supreme Court-monitored probe into the scrapping of high currency notes.