Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury on Wednesday alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is violating the very Constitution he took an oath on and said that a united opposition is protesting against the demonetisation of high-value currency notes as the latter is abdicating his responsibility of answerability to Parliament.
Yechury told the media that both Houses continue to remain disrupted primarily because of the Prime Minister's refusal to come and answer to the Parliament.
"According to our Constitution, on whose oath is the Prime Minister the Prime Minister? The government is answerable to the Parliament; the parliamentarians are answerable to the people (and) that is the meaning of the Constitution beginning with the words "We the people". The Prime Minister is abdicating his responsibility of answerability to the Parliament (and) that is why this disruption. If there is anybody today disrupting the House, it is the Prime Minister and this government refusing to answer," said Yechury.
"So, we have decided as the opposition parties together, we are meeting again in the afternoon we will take this unity that is there of the opposition to this madness that the Prime Minister has imposed on this country to the people and go outside of the Parliament into some joint actions that will be synchronized," he added.
The CPI (M) leader further said the opposition parties coming on board is a sign of the degree of unrest among the people in the country courtesy the demonetisation move.
"The pressure every single party in Parliament and every single MP is facing from the people and from their own constituencies. This pressure coming from below is what brought all the parties together irrespective of whatever be their other political positions and I think this is a sign of the degree of unrest among the people in the country. That is why this sort of a big unity can be seen in the Parliament," he added.
A united opposition today staged a protest in front of Mahatma Gandhi's statue in Parliament against the demonetisation of high value currency notes.
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The major parties which participated in the protest are Congress, BSP, JD(U), TMC, AIADMK, NCP, Left, RJD and the Samajwadi Party. The MPs raised slogans and displayed posters against demonetisation.
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi later told the media that Prime Minister Modi must come to Parliament and address the members over the government's decision to demonitise high value currency notes.
Asserting that economy has been affected by the step, Gandhi demanded the setting up of a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to probe the alleged selective leakage of the decision.
He said that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and the Chief Economic Advisor were not even consulted by Prime Minister Modi before considering the decision.