Another meet tomorrow, but April rollout ruled out
Another meet tomorrow, but April rollout ruled out
With Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi unrelenting on his strategy to further escalate confrontation with the government, rollout of the ambitious Goods and Services Tax appears set to miss its April 1, 2016 deadline. While the government and Congress leaders met on Monday to discuss the GST Bill, they sparred over political issues and indulged in blame games.
Monday’s luncheon meeting between the government and senior Congress leaders, sources said, failed to make any headway. Finance minister Arun Jaitley and parliamentary affairs minister M. Venkaiah Naidu met Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma and Jyotiraditya Scindia. External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj joined them as well. The two sides agreed to meet one more time on Wednesday. Congress Lok Sabha leader Mallikarjun Kharge was away in Karnatka due to local body elections in his constituency, sources said.
Government sources said the Congress leaders sought to rake up various political issues instead of making efforts to strike a consensus on the GST Bill. “If needed, Mr Jaitley can meet Mr Rahul Gandhi on the issue of the GST Bill,” said Mr Naidu. But Mr Jaitley dropped enough hints that the Congress was not keen on allowing passage of the GST Bill, as he expressed his fear that there would be a “washout” of the Winter Session as had happened in case of the Monsoon Session. He termed Monday meeting with the Congress leaders as a “non-meeting”.
Congress Rajya Sabha deputy leader Anand Sharma said the talks between the government and Opposition could not be confined to just the GST Bill issue. “After not engaging the Opposition for 18 months, the government is desperate to discuss with us just one bill. First, they should not be over-obsessed with one bill as other major legislation is also pending,” he told reporters.
In a blog, Mr Jaitley invoked the name of Congress icon Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the country’s first Prime Minister, to remind that party of its MPs’ responsibility for the country’s governance through Parliament. “The reasons for the washout of the current session keep changing by the hour,” wrote Mr Jaitley, quoting a speech on the parliamentary system by Pandit Nehru delivered on March 28, 1957 on the last day of the first Lok Sabha, and urged the Congress to back off from Parliament agitations.
Congress sources, however, said Mr Gandhi was not keen to call off the confrontation with the government. “With a number of states heading for Assembly elections in the first half of next year, Mr Gandhi does not want to be seen cooperating with the government in Parliament,” the Congress sources added.
