Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh protests: Farmers' unrest due to demonetisation, says Shashi Tharoor

Thiruvananthapuram: Congress on Tuesday alleged that the farmers unrest in certain parts of the country was a result of demonetisation of Rs 1000 and Rs 500 notes.Describing the note ban announced in November, 2016 as a "Himalayan Blunder", former Union minister Shashi Tharoor, member of Parliament and AICC social media in-charge Divya Spandana said farmers have been badly affected in various ways due to the note ban and "what we are facing now is its consequences".

"We have seen certain connections to the farmers stir with the demonetisation," Tharoor said when asked about the farmers agitation in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.Cash crunch following note ban had forced the farmers to sell their products at a low price affecting their livelihood, he said."What we have began to see is actually, I am afraid, only one aspect of much larger nation wide problem the country is going to face", Thaoor said while charging the NDA government with total failure in all sectors.He condemned the ban of sale of cattle for slugger and said "definitely it is an assault on the freedom of the food habits of citizens".The Congress has decided to strengthen the campaign against the Centre by highlighting its failures, Spandana said. Index of industrial production, which was growing at 5.3 percent in February 2016, has come down to 1.9 percent in March 2017, Tharoor said.Gross Value Added (GVA) a true sub-measure of economic activity, has experienced a steep fall.The GVA growth of industry has fallen from 10.7 percent in March 2016 to a low of 3.8 percent in March 2017, a decline of nearly seven percentage points, the Congress leaders pointed out."Beyond the slogans, advertising and hyper-rhetoric, sentiment is gloomy and nothing works on the ground", they said.They said some of the flagships programmes of previous UPA government has been renamed and implemented by the present government.