Bank queues show people’s sacrifice for larger good: PM

Manas Dasgupta

Ahmedabad, December 10

Prime Minister Narendra Modi sees people queuing up outside banks and ATMs as an expression of Indian culture of selflessness and sacrifices for others. “They are readily undergoing the suffering for the good of others and the larger interest of the county,” he said.

“It is the Indian tradition and culture that in times of scarcity, the old leave something for the younger and near and dear ones even if they have to undergo difficulties. This is our culture of selflessness,” Modi said.

He was addressing a gathering of farmers in the North Gujarat town of Deesa after inaugurating the Banaskantha District Co-operative Dairy’s Rs 350 crore cheese and whey powder plant, besides a whey facility. The PM also launched A-2 Kankrej breed cow conservation project. It was his fifth visit to Gujarat in the last couple of months as the state will hold the Assembly elections next year.

Advising people to be patient, Modi promised that the situation would improve once the 50 days he had sought after banning Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes were over and people would start witnessing positive changes. “Everyone will start noticing and experiencing the difference,” he said.

Defending the demonetisation decision, Modi pointed out that none of the Opposition parties had sought its rollback and were merely crticising the method of implementation.

Referring to the logjam in Parliament, he said the opposition had brought the situation to such a pass that the President had to rebuke them and virtually plead them to let the House function. “Though the government has agreed, the Opposition is not letting me speak in Parliament over the issue and so I have to adopt this route (of addressing public gatherings), to explain the intentions behind the decision which will be in the larger interests of the country to fight corruption, black money and terrorism,” he said.

Modi claimed that the currency ban had broken the back of terrorism and naxalism and weakened people dealing in fake currency.

He asked people to switch over to electronic form of financial transactions in their daily life. “I urge you all to integrate people with e-banking and e-wallets. There is no need to waste your time standing outside banks or ATMs. E-wallets have brought banks to your mobiles,” he added.

Later in his first visit since becoming the PM to “Sri Kamalam”, the headquarters of the state BJP on the Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar highway, Modi addressed senior party leaders, legislators and others in an in-camera session. Though the content of his address to the partymen was not known, sources said he mainly discussed the party affairs in the state in the light of the upcoming Assembly polls, including the reservation agitation by the Patels considered to be an assured vote bank of the BJP.