PM Modi's assertion of common man sleeping peacefully "an insult": Mamata

Training her guns on Prime Minister Narendra Modi for asserting that the common people are sleeping peacefully and the rich are searching for sleeping pills, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday urged the former not to "hit the common people like this" as it is an insult and in bad taste.

"The PM in his speech had said the poor are sleeping peacefully. This is an insult to commoners and in bad taste. My humble suggestion is not to hit the common people like this," Mamata tweeted.

Prime Minister Modi earlier today said that he had to stop corruption so he changed all the notes into just worthless piece of paper.

"If I am banning Rs. 500, Rs. 1,000 notes, am I not doing the job that you have given me? Now, the dishonest have nowhere to go. There are always difficulties when you do something different but the intentions have to be right. But there are some political parties that are worried over this. What will now happen to those garlands full of currency notes? I had to stop corruption. I can't go and check every house. So I changed all the notes into just worthless piece of paper," he said while addressing a mega rally in Uttar Pradesh' Ghazipur.

"Today the poor are sleeping peacefully and the rich are searching for sleeping pills. Our enemy is printing counterfeit notes across the border. Our enemy is flooding our nation with these counterfeit notes. We need to put an end to this. Yes, those against me are strong people. But, I will not be scared of them. I will not leave the path of truth and integrity," Prime Minister Modi asserted.

The Prime Minister said that he was really pained by the inconvenience and attributed the same for him working tirelessly to help people overcome the problem of financial crunch.

"I am saying again just give me 50 days. The bank staff is working for 18 hours a day. This is 'mahayagya', this is the festival of honesty. I seek your blessings (for success of currency ban)," he added.