BJP blows hot and cold

New Delhi: The BJP has adopted a two-pronged strategy to defang the Opposition, which continued to paralyse the winter session of Parliament for the second consecutive day by protesting the implementation of the demonetisation drive. On the one hand, the BJP acknowledged the Opposition's right to demand a debate in Parliament on the demonetisation. On the other, the ruling party attacked the Opposition for objecting to the drive to scrap the existing Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, alleging that the leaders of the parties that were protesting were either "corrupt" or were "acting against national interests". The Centre stuck to its stand that it held the "prerogative" to decide who - Prime Minister Narendra Modi or a cabinet colleague - would reply to a debate on the issue. The Opposition has demanded a statement by Modi in Parliament. However, a senior government source indicated that the Prime Minister could speak, but only after the Lok Sabha discusses the demonetisation in a "normal, orderly way" and Congress vice-president and MP Rahul Gandhi makes his statement. Since his "address to the nation" on November 8, when he announced the demonetisation, Modi has not uttered a word in Parliament on the move. He has articulated his views during an address to the Indian community in Japan's Kobe and in public meetings. The Prime Minister is slated to address a rally in Agra on Sunday, his first since the cash crisis perpetrated by the demonetisation intensified. Finance minister Arun Jaitley and power, coal and mines minister Piyush Goyal have held several media conferences and given interviews on the demonetisation before the start of the winter session. In the last three-four days, economic affairs secretary Shaktikanta Das and State Bank of India chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya have been holding fort. Unlike his predecessor Raghuram Rajan, who had been vocal on a wide range of subjects including intolerance and plurality and caused discomfort to the Centre, current Reserve Bank of India governor Urjit Patel has been silent, prompting Opposition leaders to ask questions in private. An Opposition leader in the Rajya Sabha claimed he had called up Patel yesterday and sought answers to several questions, but the RBI governor merely said he would get back. Today, parliamentary affairs minister Ananth Kumar said the Opposition was within its rights to demand a debate on the demonetisation, stressing there wasn't "any prestige issue". Speaking to journalists at his chamber in Parliament, he said: "The Congress, the principal Opposition party in the Rajya Sabha, knows the difficulties involved in the process of demonetisation. But the Opposition must have every right to ask for a debate and we are not on any prestige issue." Kumar said he hoped that on issues such as black money, crimes and money in the possession of terrorists, no political party held opinions divergent from that of the Centre. "I don't think so. Their concern seems to be only about the implementation (of the demonetisation drive) and for that, discussion is the only way forward. The government is always ready for one and we are open to their suggestions," the minister said. Simultaneously, the BJP stepped up its ante against the Opposition, alleging that the leaders protesting the demonetisation were either "corrupt" or "against national interests". BJP national secretary and spokesperson Sidharth Nath Singh issued a statement in which he targeted Mamata Banerjee, Arvind Kejriwal, Sitaram Yechury Akhilesh Yadav, Mayawati and Ghulam Nabi Azad. Singh compared Congress leader Azad's statement in the Rajya Sabha that the demonetisation had caused more deaths than the Uri attack with Rahul's dubbing of Modi as a " khoon ki dalal (blood broker)", saying both were "in bad taste". On Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh, Singh said: "It is well established that black money hampers economic growth unless one believes in Akhilesh Yadav's theory that black money is good for recession.... He is... legitimising corruption." The statement said "Kejriwal's support to corruption within his party and in the bureaucracy led his senior party colleagues to leave him". Singh accused BSP chief Mayawati of "monumental corruption". Calling the dharna by Mamata and Kejriwal outside the RBI office in Delhi yesterday "theatrics", Singh criticised the Bengal chief minister over a host of issues such as the Saradha scam, the Narada sting, the mushrooming of syndicates and smuggling of cattle. The BJP leader reminded Yechury that the CPM's "own credibility is low".