SP celebrates birthday of Khazanchi on DeMo anniversary

Lucknow, Nov 8 : Khazanchi, a three-year old boy, celebrated his third birthday on Friday, about three weeks ahead of his actual birthday.

Khazanchi, who became brand ambassador against demonetization, was born on December 2 when his mother Sarvesha was standing in a bank queue in Kanpur Dehat.

Sarvesha started to experience labour pains but the bank staff did not let her cut the line and the boy was born there.

Akhilesh Yadav, then UP chief minister, learnt of the incident and promptly named the boy 'Khazanchi'.

The name which means treasurer, was a cruel joke of sorts since the boy belonged to a poor family.

Akhilesh Yadav gave a sum of Rs 2 lakh to the boy's mother but the money was soon over.



Khazanchi's father passed away before he was even born and now, his brother was suffering from tuberculosis and the money went into his treatment.

His mother was later asked by her in-laws to leave the house and she now struggles as a daily wage labourer to make ends meet.

The Samajwadi Party president, however, used Khazanchi's story widely in the 2017 assembly elections to hit out at the BJP over the demonetization issue.

On Friday, Khazanchi was brought to the Samajwadi Party office, in a room which was gaily decorated with balloons.

The boy was made to cut a cake while SP workers sang 'happy birthday to you' song. The boy looked on, unable to understand the sudden attention.

Meanwhile, Akhilesh Yadav said that demonetization had destroyed the economy and several families.

"The only good thing born from demonetization is Khazanchi," he quipped. Yadav also released a book on 'Demonetization - a manmade disaster', written by Deepak Pandey.

--IANS

amita/skp/.



Source: IANS