New Delhi: A depleted Opposition on Tuesday trained its guns on Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a joint press conference, where the Congress questioned his silence on corruption charges and the Trinamool Congress attacked the Centre’s demonetisation move.
"The Prime Minister is telling the nation that he is fighting against corruption but when it comes to allegations against him, he does not respond," Rahul Gandhi said, referring to allegations that Modi benefited financially from Sahara and Birla corporate houses when he was the Gujarat Chief Minister.
The documents were seized by the Income Tax Department in raids on Sahara and Birla offices in 2014. The documents have names of other politicians, including Congress' Uttar Pradesh chief ministerial candidate Sheila Dikshit.
The Congress leader said while Modi was responding on all other issues, he was silent on questions raised on his "honesty and integrity".
The press conference was attended by the Trinamool Congress, the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the DMK and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, while the JD-U, Samajwadi Party, BSP, CPI(M) and NCP decided to give it a miss.
Calling demonetisation the biggest scam of Independent India, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee asked if Modi would resign at the end of 50 days if things do not improve.
Addressing the press conference, Banerjee, also the Trinamool Congress supremo, said demonetisation decision was "illegal" and "unconstitutional" and has set the economy 20 years back.
"Modi, you had asked for 50 days’ time, people were losing livelihood, dying due to starvation, yet they gave you that time. Now 47 days are over, and only three days left," said Banerjee referring to Modi's 50-day deadline nearing its end.
"We will wait for the next three days. But Modi, if things remain unsolved, will you take the responsibility and resign as the Prime Minister of the country," she asked.
"In the name of demonetisation you have plundered the entire country, over 10 crore people have been rendered unemployed. You have looted money from the poor to give relief to the corporates who have created huge nonperforming assets for the banks.
Accusing Modi of destroying the country's federal structure, she said that Modi neither took Parliament into confidence before taking such a huge decision nor he bothered to make even one line statement in Parliament after implementing it.
"This is not just unethical but also illegal and unconstitutional," said Banerjee.
She also took a jibe over the Modi government's push for a cashless economy.
"Even as advanced economy like the US has around 40 per cent cash transactions and he (Modi) talk about cashless economy. In the name of cashless economy, Modi government has gone baseless, it has gone faceless," she quipped.
(With agency inputs)
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