Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said he had not become Prime Minister to “attend small inaugurations and cut ribbons”, Hindustan Times reported. At a speech in Dehradun, Modi justified his government’s move to demonetise Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, saying it had “destroyed” terrorism, the drug mafia, human trafficking and fake currency note smuggling.

“Most people are for honesty; it is just a handful who are trampling them,” Modi said. “We have waged this war to empower those who are being trampled.” In an apparent reference to Opposition parties, Modi said there were those “who are on the lookout for an opportunity to pounce” on him, IANS reported. “But I know that so long as I have the security cover of 125 crore people, nothing will happen to me...I know you have faced a lot of inconvenience but despite that the nation has come forward to fight against corruption.”

The prime minister called demonetisation a “safaai abhiyaan” [clean-up campaign] and said corrupt people were being punished. His remarks came on the day Opposition parties called the move a “super emergency”. At a press conference in New Delhi, parties including the Trinamool Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal said the discontinuation of the high-value notes had “pushed India 20 years back”. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee demanded the resignation of the ruling National Democratic Alliance government. “You have to fulfill the promise of acche din. If you don’t, people will throw you out.”

The move has been criticised by several economists and business publications. Calling the move “sickening and immoral”, Steve Forbes, editor-in-chief of Forbes magazine, wrote, “…there’s no misunderstanding what this is truly about: attacking your privacy and inflicting more government control over your life.” The Wall Street Journal, in a piece titled “India’s bizarre war on cash” , referred to the decision as “officials exercising arbitrary power” over citizens’ money.