Opp slams PM's "lacklusture" address, BJP hails it

Opposition parties today attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for "failing" to show "sensitivity" towards people's pain due to demonetisation in his address to the nation, while BJP hailed him for announcing a string of welfare measures for the weaker sections.
Slamming Modi for his "lacklustre" address, Congress called him a merchant of "false promises" and wondered why he did not mention how many "lakhs of crores" in black money and fake currencies the government managed to wipe out through demonetisation in the last 50 days.
Congress Spokesperson Randeep Surjewala alleged the Prime Minister totally failed to show any sensitivity to people's pain as no relief from financial restrictions was announced despite widespread expectation.

The Left parties attacked him for "failing" to address problems of the poor and farmers caused by demonetisation and charged him with delivering a "budget speech" in view of forthcoming assembly polls in UP and some other states.
"He spoke like a pracharak for most of the 45-minute speech...It was like a budget speech," CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said.
BJP President Amit Shah, however, hailed Modi for welfare measures and called them "great step" towards opening the avenues for the weaker sections of the country.

"The prime minister opened up avenues for poor, farmers and youth of this country after the record availability of money in the banks since Independence following the demonetisation. It is a great step for the weaker sections of the country," he said.

Surjewala said though crores of people were reeling under severe difficulties and a large number of them lost their jobs, Modi did not talk about any roadmap for them.
Attacking Modi for not lifting restrictions on withdrawal
of cash even after the 50-day period, the Congress spokesman said the PM only believes in "hitting headlines and giving no deadlines".
"The entire country was listening with curosity that the Prime Minister will lift the restrictions on withdrwal of their hard earned money from banks. But people will still have to reel under this economic anarchy.
"The Prime Minister said it will take time to improve the banking system in the new year. It means he belives in hitting headlines and not giving deadlines," he said.

Yechury, who had asked a number of questions to the Prime Minister ahead of the latter's address to the nation, rued Modi did not announce any compensation for daily wage earners, fishermen, agricultural workers "who were hit hard by demonetisation".
He also questioned why the Prime Minister did not announce debt waiver to farmers while Rs 1.12 crore taken in loans by corporates have been written off.
"He (Modi) has talked about hardships of people standing in queues. But he said nothing on compensation to those 115 persons who died in queues while withdrawing money," Yechury said.
In a series of tweets, Shah said, "PM @narendramodi has given a futuristic & visionary address to the nation, sharing a series of welcome initiatives for poor & farmers.

"PM @narendramodi wonderfully articulated the passion & enthusiasm with which 125 crore Indians supported the movement against corruption."
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Coming down hard on the PM, Surjewala said demonetisation has taken away the jobs, hit the farmers and traders and made life difficult for every section of the society but there was no word of relief for them in his address.
"Who benefitted from the demonetisation. Only a handful of 50 people who are Modiji's friend. This is why he said yesterday that the deposits of the people in the banks would be used for strengthening banking system and infrastructure.

Noting that there was "nothing new" in PM's announcements, he said Modi is selling what Congress was implementing whether the Rs 6,000 maternity benefit to pregnant poor women or interest subvention on houses for the poor.
Stating that the decision of demonetisation has destroyed the back bone of poor and medial class, Surjewala said Modi should have announced 20 per cent bonus for farmers above MSP, compensation for those who lost job during this period among others.
Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the ruling alliance partner in Bihar, said the address proves that even Modi himself has accepted that demonetisation has "failed."

In a series of tweets, party chief Lalu Yadav posed a series of questions to the PM on the demonetisation, saying the people of the country would be standing in the queues from Monday again.
"Where is the report card, why did not (Prime Minister Modi) disclose how much black money (has been) unearthed. How much (money) has been deposited, how many jobs lost, how much is the loss to the economy and how it would be compensated," Lalu tweeted.
In another tweet, he sought to know from the PM how much money was spent on printing of new notes.

Taking a dig at Modi's speech, which did not mention any timeline for the return of normalcy in the banking system, he said the PM, who had in his November speech asked the people to bear the pain for 50 days, "did not give any deadline."
"Prime Minister publicly misleading the nation is not a good sign. Nobody will have faith in such a Prime Minister," he tweeted.
"The boring speech of today signals that the PM has accepted that demonetisation has failed. Had there been even a single achievement he would have gone to the town, tom-toming it," he said.

"The country will be in the queues again on the eve of the new year, such an expressionless, ineffective and crawling pre-budget speech," he said.
He claimed that the PM has no "remorse" even after taking away the lives of hundreds of people, and 25 lakh people's jobs.