Senior BJP leader and Union minister M Venkaiah Naidu has dismissed the Congress-led meet of eight parties against demonetisation as a “fake attempt for unity” and said it would never succeed.
“No wise party can join hands with Congress. If they (some political party) are doing it, they are doing so at their own peril,” he told reporters on Tuesday.
The Congress and seven Opposition parties sought to know from Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday if he would resign in case the cash chaos over the government’s demonetisation exercise didn’t ease out after his December 30 deadline.
Taking a dig at Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, Naidu said: “He has failed to bring unity in his own party. The strength of Congress (in Lok Sabha) has declined from 444 seats to 44 seats.”
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Referring to scams and corruption during the Congress rule, Naidu said: “Earlier Opposition parties had to protest against corruption of the government. But now, the government is fighting against corruption and the opposition is fighting against the government.”
{{/usCountry}}Referring to scams and corruption during the Congress rule, Naidu said: “Earlier Opposition parties had to protest against corruption of the government. But now, the government is fighting against corruption and the opposition is fighting against the government.”
{{/usCountry}}Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, who has been spearheading a campaign against demonetisation, was the first to demand Modi’s resignation at a joint press conference of the Opposition parties in New Delhi on Tuesday.
Continuing to target Modi over personal corruption, after alleging last week that the Prime Minister had accepted kickbacks from business houses, Gandhi said: “If he doesn’t step down, we will put pressure on him to do so.”
He tried to buttress his demand for an investigation, recalling how BJP patriarch LK Advani resigned from the Lok Sabha after his name got embroiled in the 1991 hawala scam of the Jain brothers.