Own up & quit: Opposition to Modi

​New Delhi: Training guns on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over demonetisation, a fractured Opposition on Tuesday asked him to own responsibility for the chaos that ensued following the currency ban and demanded his resignation if the cash crunch persisted even after the 50-day deadline.

While Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi questioned Modi's silence on corruption charges and held him responsible for the continuing hardships of the common people due to the notes ban, Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee dubbed demonetisation a "mega scam" and said he ought to take moral responsibility and resign.

Both leaders addressed a joint press conference here, along with leaders of the Rashtriya Janata Dal, DMK, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, Janata Dal-Secular, Indian Union Muslim League and All India United Democratic Front.

However, several important partners in the anti-demonetisation campaign - Janata Dal-United (JD-U), Left parties, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Samajwadi Party (SP), skipped the event.

"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," said Gandhi, referring to his repeated allegations that Modi benefited financially from Sahara and Birla corporate houses when he was Gujarat Chief Minister.

On demonetisation, he said it had no impact on corruption or black money laundering but was rather an attack on the country's poor while creating "a new black market has emerged -- to convert black money into white".

"December 30 is near, but the situation is still the same. It is the Prime Minister who is responsible," said Gandhi and asked Modi to tell the nation the "real motive" behind the move. Banerjee who has been scathing in her attack over the decision to spike Rs 1000 and Rs 500 notes, minced no words in lambasting Modi.

Besides calling demonetisation to be the "biggest scam" post independence, the West Bengal Chief Minister said the decision was "illegal and unconstitutional".

"Modi ji, you asked for 50 days; people were losing their livelihood, dying due to starvation but yet they gave you that time. Now 47 days are over and only three days are left.

"We will wait for the next three days. But Modi ji, if things remain unsolved, will you take responsibility and resign as the Prime Minister?" she asked.

Accusing Modi of destroying the country's federal structure, she said that the Prime Minister neither took Parliament into confidence before taking such a huge decision nor bothered to make even one line statement in Parliament after implementing it.

Claiming that over 107 people have died across India post demonetisation, she described the prevailing financial state as a "super-Emergency".

She also mocked the cashless economy argument of the Centre. In the name of cashless economy, the Modi government has gone baseless; it has gone faceless," she quipped.