Congress protests demonetisation, demands Urjit Patel’s resignation

NAGPUR: Thousands of Congress party workers and leaders protested in front of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) offices in Nagpur and Chhattisgarh capital Raipur on Wednesday against the demonetisation. The protest in Nagpur was led by former Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, while the Congress General Secretary and Chhattisgarh in-charge, B.K. Hariprasad, led the protest in Raipur, along with the Chhattisgarh Congress chief, Bhupesh Baghel. The leaders submitted a memorandum on how the RBI has lost its autonomy with Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister, to the central bank’s representatives. “The demonetisation has turned out to be a surgical strike on India’s poor, farmers, labourers, shopkeepers, small business, middle class and the entire un-organised sector. An autocratic Prime Minister Narendra Modi, bloating over the arrogance of numbers and a captive RBI, has plunged the country into a state of economic anarchy, wiping out people’s earnings and creating a colossal sense of fear and insecurity,” the memorandum claimed. Some protesters faced police batons when they tried to climb the compound wall of the RBI building at the Constitution Square in Nagpur. Mr. Chavan, however, claimed that police used force on “peaceful protesters”. “A prior notice of protest was given. But suddenly, our workers were lathi-charged without any reason. Nine Congressmen suffered injuries and five of our workers had to be taken to the hospital. There should be an inquiry into this incident and the responsible police officers should be booked,” Mr. Chavan said. He also asked RBI Governor Urjit Patel to resign “taking moral responsibility” of demonetisation and its consequences. “Every rating agency has predicted that the growth rate will slow down now but the RBI is still silent and is not providing any information. Not a single aim, for which the PM announced demonetization, has been successful. All black money hoarders have managed to turn their black income into legal income due to demonetisation and its business as usual now,” Mr. Chavan said. He added, “It’s a big scam and we will come out with proofs very soon. The way the RBI is hiding things suggests something is amiss. Had Raghuram Rajan been the Governor in such situation, he would have resigned by now but Mr. Patel has compromised the RBI’s credibility. The Modi government should apologise to the people of this country for this decision, the way Indira Gandhi had apologised for emergency.” In Raipur, the Congress party members torched an effigy of Mr. Modi. Source: The Hindu