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Opposition parties think they have until New Year's Eve to build nationwide narrative against demonetisation, report Business Standard's Archis Mohan and Amit Agnihotri.
While the remainder of the winter session of Parliament, which concludes on Friday, December 16, is set for a washout, Opposition parties believe they have two weeks, that is until New Year'’s Eve, to build a nationwide narrative against the Narendra Modi government's 'note ban' decision.
The Modi government and the Bharatiya Janata Party are biding their time until December 31, the scheduled end of the demonetisation exercise, after which the PM is likely to unveil sops for the poor.
In the interregnum, the BJP plans to counter the Opposition propaganda by attacking the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government for its multitude of scams.
On Tuesday, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said high-denomination notes, as percentage of total currency in circulation, increased from a mere 36% to over 80% during the UPA regime, that is from 2004 to 2014.
Jaitley's was a reference to alleged ill-gotten money from the scams being hoarded in high denomination currency notes.
The Opposition, comprising 17 political parties with the Congress in the lead, will have a meeting at the end of the winter session to strategise a common theme for their protests across the country until December 31.
The protests and awareness campaigns against the 'note ban' will focus on three issues -- job losses in the informal sector, how the 'note ban' is a 'grand scam' to benefit select industrialists and allegations that BJP state units had advance information which helped them convert their unaccounted money into ‘white’ money.
Some Opposition parties, particularly the Trinamool Congress, are aware of the Congress party's Achilles' Heel on corruption, and have insisted that a united Opposition should instead shift the discourse to the human suffering because of the 'note ban.'
In a show of unity, Rashtriya Lok Dal leader Ajit Singh will hold a public rally in Muzaffarnagar on December 22 and has invited several leaders of other Opposition parties, including the Trinamool and Nationalist Congress Party.
According to Congress and Trinamool leaders, the unity among 17 Opposition parties needs to be taken to the streets.
"As the principal Opposition party, the Congress has already demonstrated that leadership role in Parliament. We will initiate groundwork for joint nationwide protests against demonetisation outside Parliament," Congress veteran Satyavrat Chaturvedi said.
Coordination with regional players in the states has been left to the respective state Congress units.
The Congress has planned that its leaders will visit areas and sectors that have suffered the most 'pain.'
On Tuesday, December 13, Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi visited the Dadri grain market in Western Uttar Pradesh.
Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram addressed a press conference in Nagpur.
In Vijayawada, Communist Party of India-Marxist General Secretary Sitaram Yechury said the note ban was a huge scam.
Congress units in Delhi and Mumbai have started holding public meetings dubbed as 'note pe charcha' over the issue.
The Trinamool also started a three-day block level campaign in Bengal to highlight the impact of the note ban on the state's leather, jute and tea industries.
Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has taken to tweeting against the 'note ban' in Hindi. Trinamool Congress MP Derek O’Brien said Banerjee was the first to visit a wholesale vegetable market in Delhi to highlight the 'note ban' impact.
"The real estate sector is badly hit. Ludhiana's hosiery mills have suffered job losses. Informal sector workers have either not received wages or lost their jobs. Our party will highlight this," he said.
The winter session of Parliament, which will resume after a four-day break on Wednesday, is unlikely to transact any business in the last three days of the session that concludes on Friday.
Opposition parties will have a meeting on Wednesday morning to decide their strategy in Parliament for the next three days, but are unwilling to let the finance minister initiate the discussion in the Lok Sabha on the 'note ban.'
The BJP, meanwhile, has issued a whip to its MPs and asked them to be present in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha for the remainder of the winter session.
