SHARING the nationwide resentment, people of Tripura registered a roaring protest against the anti-people deceptive demonetisation drive of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the occasion of the first anniversary of demonetisation on November 8. In all sub-division and district headquarters including Agartala town, there were massive rallies at the call of the Left Front. All sections of people, peasants, workers, teachers and employees, traders and daily labourers participated in these protest rallies.

In Agartala, the people first gathered in front of Rabindra Shatabarshiki Bhavan and from there they proceeded in procession in the town and met in a big rally at Paradise Chowmohani. The rally was addressed by Left Front leaders including CPI(M) state secretary Bijan Dhar and state secretariat member Gautam Das. Bijan Dhar said, after one year of demonetisation people of the country have no doubt that none of the objectives of demonetisation as declared by prime minister got fulfilled. Rather, demonetisation has crippled our economy, resulted in job loss of lakhs of people, and had a serious negative impact on small and medium industries in agriculture. If anybody thinks that the demonetisation decision of Prime Minister Modi was a mere blunder, they are wrong. It was a calculated betrayal of the countrymen by the prime minister to serve his masters; to turn their black money white, said Bijan Dhar.

CPI(M) Central Committee member Gautam Das said,  demonetisation and GST are two surgical strikes that the Modi-led BJP government has launched against the people of the country. So long as RSS-BJP government reigns power at the centre, the plight of people shall continue to aggravate. It is necessary to remove this anti-people government from the power at the centre as early as possible, he argued and appealed to the people to start this movement from Tripura by defeating them in the ensuing assembly elections. CPI(M) state committee member Krishna Rakshit, Forward Bloc state secretary Shyamal Roy and RSP state secretary Dipak Dey also addressed the rally.

Alongside, the bank employees of the state also took to the street on the day to join protest demonstration and rally against demonetisation after office hours at the call of the All India Bank Employees Federation. They termed demonetisation to be an organised loot by the corporate giants and it hardly benefited the common people.