Opposition parties attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for "failing" to show "sensitivity" towards people's pain due to demonetisation in his address to the nation on the New Year’s eve, while BJP hailed him for announcing a string of welfare measures for the weaker sections.
Slamming Modi for his "lacklustre" address, Congress called him a merchant of "false promises" and wondered why he did not mention how many "lakhs of crores" in black money and fake currencies the government managed to wipe out through demonetisation in the last 50 days.
Congress Spokesperson Randeep Surjewala alleged the Prime Minister totally failed to show any sensitivity to people's pain as no relief from financial restrictions was announced despite widespread expectation.
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Describing the speech as a "pre-budget speech", West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee alleged that the Prime Minister deviated from the actual agenda of black money and demonetisation.
"PM deviated from actual agenda of black money & #DeMonetisation PM just took over post of Finance Minister and made pre-Budget speech (sic)," Banerjee said in a series of tweets.
"So the FM was missing from this advance Budget Speech made by PM. Modi babu, empty vessels make the most noise," she said claiming it was a "heartless, baseless speech".
The Left parties attacked him for "failing" to address problems of the poor and farmers caused by demonetisation and charged him with delivering a "budget speech" in view of forthcoming assembly polls in UP and some other states.
"He spoke like a pracharak for most of the 45-minute speech...It was like a budget speech," CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said.
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Terming PM's address as "disappointing", Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today accused him of "cheating" people and claimed that "not a single penny" of black money was recovered and there was no reduction in corruption due to demonetisation.
In a series of tweets, Kejriwal said, "Modiji sounds so hollow now. People have stopped believing anything that he says. He has become a subject of ridicule internationally.
Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the ruling alliance partner in Bihar, said the address proves that even Modi himself has accepted that demonetisation has "failed."
In a series of tweets, party chief Lalu Yadav posed a series of questions to the PM on the demonetisation, saying the people of the country would be standing in the queues from Monday again.
"Where is the report card, why did not (Prime Minister Modi) disclose how much black money (has been) unearthed. How much (money) has been deposited, how many jobs lost, how much is the loss to the economy and how it would be compensated," Lalu tweeted.
BJP President Amit Shah, however, hailed Modi for welfare measures and called them "great step" towards opening the avenues for the weaker sections of the country.
"The prime minister opened up avenues for poor, farmers and youth of this country after the record availability of money in the banks since Independence following the demonetisation. It is a great step for the weaker sections of the country," he said.
BJP leader and Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu also welcomed the announcements, tweeting, "I specially thank PM @narendramodi for reducing interest rate on housing. A big boost to housing sector & big boon to the poor &middle class," he tweeted.
