Capt. Amarinder flays Modi govt’s petty sops in exchange of lives lost to demonetisation

Chandigarh, December 9
Punjab Congress president Captain Amarinder Singh has lambasted the Modi government for offering shamefully petty sops to the people in exchange for the tragic losses suffered by them following the shockingly ill-conceived demonetisation move.
Express anguish and grief at the report of yet another death directly linked with demonetisation in Punjab, Captain Amarinder Singh said the appalling lack of empathy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his cronies in the government, such as Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, has assumed deplorable proportions. Instead of addressing the problems of the poor, who are the worst affected by the demonetisation drive, the government is busy trying to find ways to cover up its lapses through stupid incentives for going digital, said the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) president.
The reaction came amid reports of a woman dying at a bank in Ludhiana after being pushed by the bank guard and suffering a heart attack as she fell in the queue where she had been standing for hours to withdraw a paltry sum for her family’s survival.
One month after the ill-planned and badly executed policy move by the Modi government, the problems of the people are getting aggravated instead of being alleviated, said the Punjab Congress president, urging the judiciary to intervene and come to the rescue of the people.
The so-called incentives announced on Thursday by Jaitley are as far removed from the ground realities in the wake of demonetisation as the move itself, said Captain Amarinder. The finance minister is talking of petrol and diesel, and insurance policies, when people don’t have cash to buy food, Captain Amarinder pointed out, lashing out at the brazen apathy of Modi and his team of ‘plunderers’, who had simply found a legal way of seizing the hard-earned money of the citizens of India.
Is there any law anywhere in the world that allows an elected government to prevent its people from using their own money, asked Captain Amarinder, adding that the situation triggered by the demonetisation was continuously deteriorating, leading to unprecedented social tensions apart from financial anarchy and chaos in the country.
People don’t need a few paise discount on things such as railway travel, insurance etc.; they need food to feed themselves and their families, they need money to survive, said Captain Amarinder, warning Prime Minister Narendra Modi of a serious backlash if the government does not take immediate steps to control the situation.