Mamata Banerjee calls demonetisation a 'disaster', asks Twiterrati to use black display images on 8 November

Terming the Narendra Modi government’s demonetisation move a “disaster”, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee took to Twitter on Monday and implored others to follow suit in slamming the decision on the micro-blogging website on 8 November. Her remarks came just two days ahead of the first anniversary of demonetisation, that the Opposition has decided to observe as ‘Black Day’ across the nation. Mamata called for a protest against the note ban, which she dubbed as a “scam that destroyed the economy”, and asked others to change their Twitter DP (display picture) to black on 8 November.

Her salvo is the latest in a string of recent attacks against the ruling dispensation. Just two weeks ago, she had called demonetisation India’s “biggest scam” . “Demonetisation is the biggest scam in the country. There should be an investigation to know why it was done. Our party leaders will observe Kala Dibas (Black Day) in each and every block between 2 pm and 3 pm on 8 November,” Mamata had announced. “Come up with short and crisp slogans protesting against demonetisation,” she had told party leaders. She claimed her apprehensions about demonetisation had come true and whatever she said within the first few hours of the move was now being reiterated by all the eminent economists. On Thursday, Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray had met Mamata and the Centre’s economic policies such as GST and demonetisation are believed to have come up. “There are areas of common concern on policy issues. We were the first ones to voice our protest against the GST and demonetisation. So has Trinamool Congress expressed concerns over these issues,” Thackeray had said. [caption id=“attachment_4071163” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of West Bangal chief minister Mamata Banerjee. PTI[/caption] A close aide of Mamata said after the meeting : “The discussions veered around the Modi government’s economic policies, which have generated unrest among people.” Recently, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi had called demonetisation an “out and out disaster” orchestrated by the Modi government. “Prime Minister Modi and his government have said that they will celebrate 8 November, the day demonetisation was implemented. Modi has not been able to understand the feeling of the nation. The demonetisation by Modi was an out and out disaster. (The day) 8 November is a sad day for India,” Rahul had said. Opposition parties have decided that they would observe 8 November as Black Day to protest against the “ill-conceived” decision of the government to spike Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes, a year ago. The Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad had told reporters that the Opposition parties had worked out a joint strategy and would register their protest against the decision. “Demonetisation was an ill-conceived and hasty decision of the government. It is unprecedented, perhaps in the entire world, that a government had to alter its policy 135 times within a month,” Azad said, recalling how the government kept changing its rules in the aftermath of the note ban last year. The decision to mark 8 November as the Black Day was taken at a coordination meeting that was attended by JD(U) rebel leader Sharad Yadav, CPM’s D Raja, DMK MP Kanimozhi, BSP’s Satish Mishra and Trinamool Congress’ Derek O’Brien. As a counter to Opposition’s ‘Black Day’ on the first demonetisation anniversary, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had announced that the BJP will observe 8 November as anti-black money day. Defending the note ban, Jaitley slammed the Congress for its criticism of the ‘bold reform’. With inputs from agencies