Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today left for Kolkata to attend the Global Business Summit being organised by his West Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee, in another sign of growing bonhomie between the two.
A senior government official said that Banerjee had recently invited her Delhi counterpart to Summit beginning tomorrow.
"The Delhi Chief Minister left for Kolkata to attend the Summit and he will come back by tomorrow evening," the official said.
In the midst of his his government's turf war with the Centre, Kejriwal had organised a Chief Ministers' conclave here in September last year which the West Bengal Chief Minister had attended.
Kejriwal, in the presence of Mamata Banerjee, had also contended that only judiciary has the authority to declare the government orders illegal if they go against the Constitution.
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Kejriwal alleged that nearly 84 people had died as a consequence of the demonetisation decision and asked the Prime Minister to answer who was responsible for the deaths.
"When will you (Modi) wake up from your slumber," he said, adding that the PM had made the entire country stand in queues.
Citing the example of a farmer in Punjab who allegedly ended his life after being unable to withdraw Rs 2.5 lakhs for his daughter's wedding, Kejriwal questioned how BJP leaders were conducting marriages.
"(Mining baron) Janardhan Reddy spent 500 crores on his daughter's marriage. Are the BJP leaders conductingtheir daughters' marriage with a sum of Rs 2.5 lakhs?"
He claimed the move had pushed the country back by nearly two decades and it would now take a lot of time to revive the economy.
"Businesses are suffering, industries are shutting down, people have started losing their jobs, looms have been shut down in Modi's own parliamentary constituency causing weavers to go hungry," Kejriwal said.
If the government really wanted to act against corruption, they must bring back black money stashed abroad, he said, questioning why the Prime Minister was not taking action against the list of people holding black money abroad.
He mocked PM Modi for "using his aged mother for a political stunt by making her stand in a bank queue".
Kejriwal also alleged that BJP had purchased land in several places before the announcement of the demonetisation measure on November 8.
"How will corruption be eradicated by scrapping Rs 1000 notes and introducing Rs 2000 notes? It will only be doubled. Even BJP men are being caught with RS 2,000 notes," he said.
He exhorted people to teach BJP a lesson in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh assembly polls by not voting for it.
"It was in Uttar Pradesh that the BJP won the highest number of Lok Sabha seats, which helped Modi become Prime Minister. Now people of the state should teach the party a lesson for their demonetisation move by not voting for them during the upcoming assembly polls," he said.
