As part of the nationwide Congress protest against demonetisation, Punjab Congress leaders and workers on Monday came out on the roads in large numbers, holding demonstrations and protest marches across all districts against the 'organized loot and legalized plunder of the common people' by the government.Slogan-shouting Congress men, carrying placards against the `monumental management failure’ of the irrational and ad-hoc scheme, marched to banks and ATMs in their respective districts to register their protest and reach out to the common people who had been plunged into a web of humungous problems and difficulties as a result of the `change notes’ decision of the prime minister.Party leaders and workers took to the streets across Jalandhar (North), Ropar, Adampur, Mohali, Nawanshahr, Faridkot, among other places, to mark their protest in response to a nationwide call by the Indian National Congress to observe the day as `Jan Akrosh Diwas.’ Party leaders pointed out that, 20 days after the prime minister announced his ill-conceived policy, the queues at the banks/ATMs showed no signs of abating, as innocent people continued to be subjected to unbearable hardships.
Referring to the economic anarchy into which the country had been plunged by the unplanned and undevised decision of the Modi government, they said people were suffering from a colossal sense of fear and insecurity. People standing in queues are neither thieves nor black money hoarders, they said, adding that Modi cannot mock Indians facing insurmountable problems nor can he use his traditional `jumlas’ to deflect the truth that 125 crore people are suffering pain, angst, distress and desolation as a result of his move. Modi has branded the entire country as criminals, they lamented, pointing out the handful of industrial friends of the prime minister in whose hands the black money actually lies are not the ones who are standing in the never-ending queues.The Punjab Congress leaders said that Modi’s friends and party workers had known about the decision in advance and had thus been able to save themselves from the problems arising out of the demonetisation.They expressed grave concern at the deaths of more than 80 people as a result of Modi’s autocratic `Tuglaki farman’ and demanded unconditional apology as well as compensation to the families of the deceased from the prime minister.