Mayawati said demonetisation had imposed a "political and economic emergency" on India.
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati today drew a comparison between Prime Minister Narendra Modi's demonetisation initiative and the Emergency imposed by the Indira Gandhi government in the 1970s, and claimed that the people were eagerly waiting to push the BJP out of power in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
"India suffered immensely under the Emergency imposed by the Cong govt of Indira Gandhi but the undeclared political & economic emergency of NOTEBANDI has made the lives of 130 crore people miserable, causing huge unemployment. They now eagerly wait to get rid of this BJP govt," she tweeted today. The post came amid an intense trading of barbs between the BSP-Samajwadi Party coalition and the ruling BJP in the run-up to the polls in Uttar Pradesh -- India's most politically significant state with 80 Lok Sabha seats.
Yesterday, Mayawati had claimed that the BJP was making the same mistake committed by the Congress during Indira Gandhi's rule by portraying PM Modi as the personification of India. The allegation came days after Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath dubbed the Indian Army as "Modiji ka Sena" during an election rally in Ghaziabad.
The BSP chief also criticised the Prime Minister for terming himself as the "chowkidar (watchman)" of the nation, and his government as the only one capable of defending its people against enemies. "It is the BJP, not the BSP, that is in the habit of freeing terrorists. Masood was also released by the BJP govt, and he is now proving to be a big headache," Mayawati said in another tweet.
She was referring to the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government's decision to free Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar, besides two other terrorists, to secure the release of over 150 hostages from a Indian Airlines flight hijacked by a Pakistan terrorist group in 1999. Masood Azhar went on to orchestrate the Uri attack in 2016 and the suicide strike on a CRPF convoy in Pulwama in February 14.
The Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh will be held in seven phases, starting April 11. The votes will be counted on May 23, and the results declared the same day.