CM calls Delhi liar, black, dirty - Mamata's Japan jibe and call for Opposition unity, including CPM

Mamata outside two banks in south Calcutta 

TT, Calcutta, Nov. 12: Mamata Banerjee today dubbed the demonetisation move a "surgical anarchy", peppering the Centre with epithets like "liar", "black", "dirty" and "diseased" and urging an Opposition unity that would include even arch-foe CPM.

The chief minister, who today visited bank branches and ATMs and sympathised with those standing in the long queues, has been the most vocal critic of the Centre's November 8 decision to scrap the existing Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.

Trinamul sources said Mamata had sensed the people's growing impatience across the country and wanted to use the opportunity to project herself on the national stage as the champion of the masses.

"I once again demand that this draconian decision, this surgical anarchy, be withdrawn. Honest taxpayers are being harassed. The people have been betrayed," Mamata told a news conference.

"For the crimes of a few, the majority is suffering. Some money launderers are profiting because of this black decision."

She added: "They can throw me into jail or shoot me or do whatever else they like - I will not relent. I will continue protesting on behalf of the common man. I will not cower before the tyranny of this dictatorship."

Mamata labelled the Centre a " jhoota sarkar, kala sarkar, ganda sarkar (lying government, black government, dirty government)".

She taunted Prime Minister Narendra Modi: " Ro raha hai Hindustan, aap gaye hain Japan (While India weeps, you dash off to Japan)."

"Modi sarkar, vyadhi sarkar (Modi government, diseased government)," she added.

Mamata demanded a judicial probe to gauge the losses the economy had suffered because of the demonetisation.

"There should be a probe by five acting judges of the Supreme Court to assess the extent of the losses.... This has turned out to be a big, black scandal," she said.

"Markets across India are ruined, (the people's) purchasing power is crashing, and the people are hurting."

A Trinamul Lok Sabha member said Mamata had realised that the issue was more powerful than any she had pursued in the recent past to fulfil her national ambitions.

Mamata knows that the demonetisation drive, "which has affected almost every common man", could help propel her swiftly onto the national stage and make her the face of a united Opposition, the MP said.

"It's much better to be recognised as a champion of the masses, taking up the anguish of the people everywhere, than merely as an advocate of minority rights," he added.

"If she plays her cards well, she could emerge as the biggest political gainer in the country from this mess."

Mamata today called for a pan-Indian unity of all the Opposition groups, going to the extent of welcoming the CPM despite the "ideological differences".

"This anti-people and anti-poor government has no moral right to continue in power. Now is the time for it to resign. Else, the people will teach the BJP a lesson in future elections," she said.

"I appeal to all Opposition parties to come together. We may have ideological differences with the CPM, but we are ready to work with it. The Congress, the AAP, the Samajwadi Party, the BSP - everyone who is willing to oppose this to save the country - must come together."

The CPM, given its political compulsions, has had to more or less echo Mamata on the demonetisation. Nevertheless, it has been making feeble attempts to distance itself from her.

"If she wants to protest, she will. If others want to, they will. But how can we take along with us those who have retained, as ministers and MPs, people tainted by the Saradha and Narada scams?" Bengal CPM secretary Surjya Kanta Mishra said.

"Besides, Mamata and Modi are the two sides of the same coin. She criticises him for what he does to India, only to perpetrate the same herself in Bengal."

CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury said that Trinamul was "merely iterating" what the Left had said.