Demonetisation: Rahul Gandhi will lead Opposition charge

New Delhi: Aiming to push the ruling BJP-led NDA government into a corner, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi will hold a crucial meeting on October 30 to work out an action plan for largescale protests that the party plans to organise on November 8 — the first anniversary of demonetisation.

Eighteen Opposition parties led by the Congress plan to hold protests in various parts of the country including the national capital, highlighting the failure of the controversial decision to ban Rs 500 and 1,000 rupee-notes by the Centre a year ago.

According to media reports and agencies, several Congress general secretaries and states in-charge are expected to attend the October 30 meeting to work out the blue print for the pan-India protests.

The decision to hold protests by Opposition parties on November 8 was taken at a meeting of the coordination committee of the parties held in the Parliament House earlier this week. It was attended by leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, JD-U leader Sharad Yadav, BSP’s Satish Chandra Misra, TMC’s Derek O’Brien, DMK’s Kanimozhi and CPI’s D. Raja, among others.

The main theme of protests is likely to be “MMD” — an acronym coined by the Congress of its slogan “Modi Made Disaster”. On Thursday, Mr Gandhi had tweeted: “Dr Jaitley, the economy is in the ICU because of note ban and GST.”

Apart from demonetisation, the protests will also highlight the failure of the NDA government’s economic policies.

Interestingly, the protests against demonetisation are being held just a day before the Himachal Pradesh Assembly polls, which are scheduled for November 9.