TIA NEWS/ NEWS DELHI
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today appealed to the political parties to support the government’s move against black money, corruption and terror funding urging them to raise the issue of national interest and make the Winter session fruitful.
Mr Modi made this remarks while chairing an all party meeting at Parliament House this evening ahead of the winter session of Parliament beginning tomorrow. Giving takeaways from the Prime Minister’s remarks, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar told MEDIA that Prime Minister also asked the political parties to think of bringing transparency in political funding and also make consensus on holding simultaneous elections for Lok Sabha and State Assemblies.
Talking to media, Leader of the Opposition and Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said his party is not opposed to the demonetization of high value notes but is against the chaos resulting from what he called unprepared move. He said, it appears that there has been selective leakage of government’s decision and the Congress will raise the issue in Parliament along with other like minded parties.
Rejecting the allegations of the opposition on leakage of information, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said, the allegations are baseless and full secrecy was maintained before the announcement.
CPIM leader Sitaram Yechury said, old notes should be allowed till alternative arrangements are in place. Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, Ananth Kumar and Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge, TMC leader Sudip Bandhopadhya, JD(U)’s Sharad Yadav and others attended the all party meeting.
Earlier, BJP came down heavily on the Opposition saying the Prime Minister is trying to curb black money with demonetization exercise, but rival parties have ganged up against him. Talking to reporters in New Delhi, party Secretary Shrikant Sharma claimed that the general public is in the support of the move despite difficulties.
Before the all party meet, the Opposition parties including Congress, Left, TMC, NCP and JD(U) also had a meeting to evolve a common strategy to corner the government in Parliament on various issues.
In another development, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is scheduled to meet President Pranab Mukherjee tomorrow on demonetization issue. TMC leader Derek O’Brien said that Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah will join Ms. Banerjee.