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A fortnight after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced his demonetisation plan, the Opposition tore into the policy in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday. Modi did not speak, and did not attend the session after lunch. Meanwhile, all the Opposition parties had a go at the demonetisation policy.

Soon after former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s speech, Samajwadi Party MP Naresh Agarwal took the stage.

“Modiji, when you say with feeling that people are after your life, we feel very bad, especially Samajwadi Party,” Agarwal said. “You can roam through UP without bother, our law and order is so good, no one will touch you,” he added, prompting laughter from members of the house, including Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

The irony of the statement was not lost on twitter users.

Agarwal went on to draw a comparison between the survey on the Narendra Modi app about demonetisation and opinion polls carried about by the Indira Gandhi government during the Emergency, before going on to make another joke.

“There are those who say the PM did not take even (Finance Minister) Arun Jaitley into confidence,” Agarwal said. “If Arunji had known, he would have whispered about it in my ears. He knows me.”

“The same people who have quoted Bob Dylan, have done mobile surveys on their app saying 93% people agree with them,” began Trinamool Congress leader Derek O’Brien.
“It is now no longer one or two people, it’s 16 Opposition parties here. It is the voice of the people. What are you doing about electoral reforms? Eighty per cent donations to parties are from unknown sources. Six percent of black money is in cash, what about the rest?”

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Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati also took aim at the survey, saying, “No one disagrees with your objective. The way you have implemented it is not correct. The people are suffering in villages. It is completely wrong that over 90 percent support your move.”

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