HYDERABAD: Referring to the two separate verdicts of the Supreme Court on demonetisation, CPI general secretary D Raja on Monday said that the citizens were forced to accept one point of view in the name of the majority.b Addressing a press conference here, Raja described Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s demonetisation decision as a mismanagement of the economy and misgovernance of the country.
“Judgment on demonetisation is not unanimous, as in the case of EWS reservation. The majority’s judgment was upheld. But, dissent has been recorded. The dissenting judgment has questioned certain basic issues. Our citizens need to be given a chance to dissent,” Raja said.
Lashing out at Narendra Modi, Raja said that when the demonetization policy was announced, parliament was not given an opportunity to discuss the pros and cons of it. “When Narendra Modi assumed office as PM he promised maximum governance and minimum government. It has now become maximum government and minimum governance,” the CPI leader observed. Seeking answers from the Centre, Raja asked what had happened to the plan of bringing back black money, eradicating counterfeit currency and stopping terror funding.
Speaking about electoral reforms, the Rajya Sabha member said that recently they had received a letter from the Election Commission of India (ECI) asking for their opinion on conducting simultaneous elections for Lok Sabha and State Assemblies. He sought to know why ECI was pursuing the BJP’s idea of holding one nation - one election.
“India is a multi-party democracy. How can the government think of holding simultaneous elections? It is absolutely impossible, impractical.” He, however, demanded comprehensive reforms to provide a “level playing field” to all the political parties to ensure free and fair elections.
“In the first general elections, we had one party rule at the Centre and States. But, in 1957 that one party rule was broken in Kerala. After 1967, one party rule was broken in eight more States. Then after a decade, we started witnessing a coalition government at the Centre. So, in such a multi-party democracy, one election is not possible,” he concluded.