Little Khajanchi was born as his mother stood in a line a day after the 2016 demonetisation. Today, the boy celebrated his fifth birthday at the Samajwadi Party office in Lucknow.
Wearing a checkered shirt, he stood on a table as party chief Akhilesh Yadav fed him mithai (sweetmeat). The unimpressed boy threw away some, ate some and appeared generally uninterested as party men scrambled to hand him envelopes with money.
“The BJP should celebrate his birthday exuberantly. The party should honour him,” said Yadav, adding that the BJP could not explain the benefits of demonetisation till date.
“So many people lost their lives during demonetisation. Khajanchi was the only one born during it. The SP is the only party which has offered the family any support,” he said.
Khajanchi, whose family lives in a rural part of Kanpur, was named by Yadav, who was chief minister at the time he was born. The name in Hindi translates to 'cashier'.
The boy also received a gleaming red tricycle as a gift.
Yadav said that demonetisation had not been the masterstroke that the BJP had promised, but was instead a “brain stroke”.
“What happened to all the benefits that the BJP promised it would bring? It was done deliberately to harass people… Money is neither black nor white. It is our transactions which can be black or white”, Yadav said.
“So many years have passed. Now at least the BJP should be able to tell the benefits of demonetisation,” he said.
Khajanchi, who was at the SP office with his mother, will be in Lucknow for one more day, according to Yadav. “The BJP should at least call him now,” he said.
Yadav also criticised the government referring to an observation by the Supreme Court on Monday. “There is a triple engine at work—in Delhi, in Lucknow and in Lakhimpur Kheri—to protect the accused,” said Yadav, in reference to the inquiry being conducted in the case where a vehicle carrying the son of the minister of state (home) rammed into farmers, killing eight people.
“It is useless to expect justice under this government,” Yadav said.