Bharat Bandh against Demonetisation

As the currency change took over the Indian continent, different reactions have been received from different parts of the country. While maximum of the Indian citizens are supporting the demonetisation process, few political parties along with other civilians are protesting against the currency change because of the difficulties they faced while transacting in the market. The protestors declared a Bharat Bandh today (on 28 November 2016) as a protest against the sudden currency change.

Protesters all over India decided not to work on the 28 and ask to put an end to the demonetisation process. Even though the Government of India has provided time till the end of 2016 to exchange the old notes from banks and post offices, people have found it extremely annoying and inconvenient to wait in long queues at banks and the ATM’s. As a result, people who do not support the currency change took a decision to quit working for a day and express their anger against the currency change process.

While most of the people went to work and kept their shops open all over India, few people expressed their anger in different ways. Few rally’s and riots were encountered in the capital city of Delhi while several trains were halted in Bihar. Kerala is one of the few states which shut down for the day. The supporters and workers of the Left parties including the CPI, CPI-M, CPI(ML) and other parties stopped over a dozen long route trains at Patna, Gaya, Jehanabad, Bhagalpur and Muzaffarpur railway stations.

However the Rashtriya Janata Dal and Congress have decided not to join in the protest against demonetisation in the state of Bihar. The CM of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee earlier stated that she did not support bandhs but will take out a protest march against demonetisation. Leading political parties like Shiv Sena backed demonetisation but also expressed sorrow as civilians faced problems in daily routines. The leading party in Odhisha, BJD also decided not to join hands in the protest against demonetisation.

The capital city of Telangana, Hyderabad remains calm and no opposition for demonetisation is seen till now. When it comes to Vizag city, there was a fuss regarding the 28 November Bharat Bandh but eventually nothing has been encountered till now. Most of the offices and shops are working. Crowded shopping areas like Jagadamba centre and complex are filled with people like any other normal day and people are not involved in any riots and protest marches. Even though some offices requested their workers to come in the early hours of Monday but no effect of the Bandh have been seen on the streets of Visakhapatnam. Local shops along with the big shopping complexes are working and so is the public transport.

It seems as if the Andhra Pradesh government and the civilians support the demonetisation completely and hope for a corruption free future for the future-generations. While many people are supporting the initiation of currency change by the Prime Minister of our country, the main question is that whether this demonetisation process will reduce the corruption level and bring out all black money. All we need to do is wait and find out what time brings for the Indian democracy.