Rahul meets people in ATM queue, says money spike to help PM's friends

Accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of acting on his whims and fancies, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi said on Monday: "We will have to find a new word to define him."

"Why Modiji is supposed to come to Parliament? He is at another level now," Gandhi told journalists outside Parliament after earlier interacting with people queuing up at an ATM in Delhi's Jahangirpuri area.

"He does not consult his ministers and takes decisions according to his whims and fancies," Gandhi said.

"He took the biggest economic decision in the history of India by informing just three to four people. There was no plan and no thought was given to its negative repercussions," he said.

"He cannot be even called a 'Super PM'. We can see his different form. We will have find a new word to define him," Gandhi said, adding that he was ready to discuss the demonetisation issue in Parliament.

"Those 15 to 20 people close to PM will be benefitted (by the currency spike). Their loans will be waived off. The poor will incur losses."

Gandhi's comments came after he made a surprise visit to the ATM where people queuing up to draw cash complained how badly their lives had been hit since the November 8 demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.

One man complained that he was not able to pay his children's school fees because he was short of cash. "And the school refuses to take the old 500 rupee notes.

"If we try to convert the old 500 note into 100 rupees, we get only 300 rupees in turn," he added.

An elderly woman told Gandhi that people were facing great difficulties now to get hold of cash.

"Every day we are forced to queue up like this in the morning hoping to draw money. Even then there are days when the ATM goes dry. I have been suffering for three days."

A young man said he was standing in the queue despite fever because he had no choice.

"I work in a factory that makes slippers in Tri Nagar. The owner pays us still in old notes," he complained.

Gandhi asked people about the difficulties they faced due to the demonetisation. He also asked those in the queue if they found the spiking of the old currency useful.

This was Gandhi's third visit to an ATM since November 11 when he went to an ATM on Parliament Street in the heart of Delhi and to another in Mumbai five days later.

--IANS

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