Targeting the Modi government for taking the ordinance route to impose penalty including jail term for possessing scrapped notes, CPI(M) on Wednesday said it employed the “backdoor” as it was afraid of facing Parliament.
CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, however, trashed the demand by some opposition parties led by Congress and TMC that Prime Minister Narendra Modi resign over demonetisation and, instead, pitched for directing efforts to see that problems faced by people end sooon.
Asked about fissures within opposition after Left parties did not take part in the meet and the press conference addressed by Rahul Gandhi along with West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and other opposition leaders on Tuesday, Yechury insisted that “unity continues to be there”.
The Marxist leader, at the same, stressed on having proper consultations among opposition parties to strengthen their unity.
“It was inevitable for the government to bring the ordinance or else demonetisation move would not be legal…in actual practice, they should have amended the law concerned when Parliament was in session (to validate the December 30 deadline),” Yechury told reporters.
“There is no need for taking ordinance route. But, afraid of law like this facing Parliament during winter session, the backdoor method has been employed by the Modi government,” he added.
On opposition unity over the note ban issue, he said, “Unity was there and will continue to be there.
“But the question is how we strengthen that unity? There should be consultations and that we reach common decisions.”
As the 50-day period sought by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for easing of note ban problem ends, Yechury rued that the hardships of people have “only increased”.
“Now we hear new threats that he will make new announcements on December 30. We are now awaiting to know what are these new announcements.
“Based on that, the Left parties will reach out to people through protests. We also urge other opposition parties which are against demonetisation to co-ordinate efforts,” he said.
