Congress hits streets against demonetisation

New Delhi: As part of the ongoing agitation against demonetisation the Congress on Wednesday gheraoed offices of the Reserve Bank of India across the country. Senior party leaders were out protesting outside the RBI offices. Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said, “RBI has been made a rubber stamp. If I meet the RBI governor I will not be able to recognise him. If he has no independence he should resign.”

The protesters led by Congress MP Ahmed Patel, party’s deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha Anand Sharma, DPCC chief Ajay Maken and P.C. Chacko tried to march from Jantar Mantar to the RBI’s regional headquarters to Parliament Street but were stopped by the police. They alleged that the central bank has “failed miserably” in handling the situation post demonetisation and demanded the limit on bank and ATM withdrawal be lifted.

The main theme of the protest was that 70 days have passed. But the government’s and the RBI’s decision to not lift the weekly withdrawal restrictions of `24,000 is a treachery with the people of India. Failure to restore money supply has paralysed India’s economy leading to massive loss of jobs and closure of businesses on a daily basis. Senior leaders of the Congress, including former home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, former external affairs minister Salman Khurshid, were also leading the protest in Ahmedabad and Patna respectively.

This round of agitation includes jan vedna sammelans at the panchayat level across the country. The Congress has made demonetisation a poll issue in the upcoming Assembly elections in five states.