The Punjab Congress, led by Vice President Sunil Jakhar, on Friday held a protest dharna in Ludhiana in support of the industries and traders striking against the Modi government’s ill-conceived demonetisation move.Party president Captain Amarinder Singh could not join the protestors due to his scheduled meeting with Prime Minister Narendr Modi on the farm loan waiver issue in New Delhi. However, Jakhar informed the industrialists that Captain Amarinder will soon meet them, along with small businessmen, entrepreneurs and traders, to take their views and suggestions on battling the long-term ill-effects of demonetisation, which he described as a whim of just one man (Modi), who had pretensions of being an economist.Expressing solidarity with the agitating industries and traders, Jakhar said while the Congress, led by Rahul Gandhi, had already cornered Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the issue, the Punjab Congress will also take up the matter on war-footing and address the woes of trade and industry in the state on priority as soon as it comes to power.
Addressing mediapersons before the protest demonstration, Jakhar said demonetisation had badly hit the consumption economy in Punjab, with the withdrawal of liquidity triggering the collapse of every self-made entrepreneur in the state, along with the industries, which had already laid off thousands of workers in recent months, initially due to the exploitative polices of the local leadership and now due to demonetisation.The Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government at the Centre was clearly targeting the middle class by strangulating the consumption economy, said Jakhar, questioning the Badals’s silence on the demonetisation-related woes of the people of Punjab. “Neither Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal nor Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal have the guts to take a stand against Modi or their ally, the BJP,” said Jakhar, dismissing as `too little too late’ Sukhbir’s plea to the central government to solve the cash problem.
Sukhbir himself has now reportedly admitted that people are losing patience, Jakhar pointed out, adding, however, that it was clear that the Badals could not take a stand for the people of Punjab. “If they are really concerned, why don’t they snap their poll alliance with the BJP,” he asked.Even within the BJP, there were tremors of protest now over the situation arising out of demonetisation, which had devastated the economy, said Jakhar, adding that the industries, the farming sector and the small traders in Punjab had been badly hit by the cash crunch. `Vyapari bhi pareshan, bhikari bhi pareshan’, Jakhar said, quoting the owner of a 20-member band-baaja group.It is not just these segments but the future of the youth, and the future of the state, that was being destroyed by demonetisation, Jakhar pointed out, adding that with industries closing down, unemployment of youth was becoming a bigger problem, leading to more drug woes for Punjab.