Lucknow, Nov 10 (IANS): BSP chief Mayawati on Thursday slammed the demonetization of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes and said the country was facing a "financial emergency".

She told the media here that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was a master in hoodwinking people and deflecting attention from the real problems faced by them.

The problems people across the country were facing due to this decision were immense, something that neither Modi nor the central government was able to understand.

Almost 90 per cent of the population was fed up with the Modi government as most of its policies were neither clear nor in public interest, she said. 

The decision to withdraw the old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, she said, was not in public interest and had caused great inconvenience to the poor people, farmers and the working class. 

The small businesses have come to a grinding halt, the markets were shut and people do not know what to do now, she said, and accused the government of being insensitive to the problems of the common man.

She said that calling the demonetization a "surgical strike" was blind flattery and said income tax raids on the rich would have yielded more results.

BJP General Secretary Vijay Bahadur Pathak said the frustration of the BSP leader can be understood "for obvious reasons". 

"There is a problem in some areas. Within a few days all this will be sorted out," he said.