Mamata Banerjee meets RBI Governor Urijit Patel, urges him to ‘stand up against demonetisation’

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“As the governor of RBI, an autonomous institution with a great history, which issues currencies to the nation, we expect you to stand up against the demonetisation onslaught against the common people of the nation at this moment of crisis, rather than falling silent and remaining opaque,” she wrote.

“You are perhaps aware that already five crore workers…are facing unemployment and hunger. Unorganised sector… has literally collapsed… The small and medium enterprises are shutting down in lakhs. The massive trading sector has been brought down to its knees, unable to conduct its business… The farmers are going through a trauma never seen before and that too not due to a natural calamity but due to a man-made disaster of massive demonetisation… All development work has come to a standstill due to cash crunch,” she added.

On the Centre’s push for cashless economy, she wrote: “You also know that plastic card is not foolproof and 92 per cent of the villages in the country have no banks.” She said every major economist, including Nobel laureates, have come out strongly against demonetisation.

“You are aware that the economy is getting derailed and growth rates of GDP are being revised downwards every other day,” she wrote.

Speaking to mediapersons after the meeting, Mamata said, “I’m satisfied… The Prime Minister, Parliament, nothing is available. No one is responding. He (Patel) is a direct man who is directly involved in all these… My satisfaction is that I could express the views and explain the situation.” She said the RBI is a “big institution, which should not be politically misused”.

She, however, said that Patel did not answer anything, and only heard her. “There is nothing that could be answered. He was here for an hour and listened to me.” When asked if Patel agreed that the implementation of the demonetisation was wrong, she replied: “Look, I don’t think that as a government officer he (Patel) can say that, but I think silence is sometimes golden.”

Meanwhile, after coming out of Nabanna, Patel said the “meeting was good”.

Later, Mamata clarified that the meeting was a “routine one” and the appointment had been sought “before PM made the demonetisation announcement”.