Mamata, Kejriwal demand roll-back of demonetisation within 3 days

Chief Ministers Mamata Banerjee and Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday tore into Prime Minister Narendra Modi over demonetisation with the Aam Aadmi Party chief asking the government to roll back it in three days while the Trinamool Congress supremo said such a crisis was not seen even during Emergency.

Addressing a rally in New Delhi, Kejriwal alleged that demonetisation was the "biggest scam" in Independent India's history while Banerjee said Modi should not run the country through "dictatorship", calling the protest a fight to save the country.

The Delhi chief minister alleged that demonetisation was being carried out to write-off around Rs 8 lakh crore of loan owed by Modi's "corporate friends" by collecting Rs 10 lakh crore from the people through the exercise.

"Black money is flooding the market again. Notes are being home delivered to some people. This is independent India's biggest scam. The government wants to amass Rs 10 lakh crore by forcing the people to deposit their money in banks and use that amount to write off loans of Modiji's friends.

"Modiji sent Vijay Mallya, who has huge debt, to London one night. He has also brought people to the streets (following demonetisation). People are being cheated. Why did IT not raid former Bharatiya Janata Party Minister G Janardana Reddy who spent Rs 500 crores in his daughter's wedding? And they want us common people to spend Rs 2.5 lakh in a wedding," he said.

Kejriwal also took a dig at Finance Minister Arun Jaitley wondering if he spent only Rs 2.5 lakh in his daughter's wedding recently.

"Modiji, do not fool people saying standing in line is patriotism. Who is responsible for the death of 40 people standing in queues?," he said, addressing traders at Azadpur wholesale fruit and vegetable market.

The Delhi chief minister also made certain allegations against Modi pertaining to his tenure as Gujarat chief minister, claiming to base his allegations on documents given to him by a someone sitting in a top position in the finance ministry.