NEW DELHI: Over a month after Prime Minister Narendra Modi took initiative to host Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and former PM Manmohan Singh for tea to get the opposition party on board for the struck reform bills, the government made a fresh bid on Thursday. Hours after parliamentary affairs minister Venkahiah Naidu reached out to Sonia Gandhi to seek her help pass GST Bill, both parties traded charges suggesting it would require much more such meetings to achieve thaw as the relations had turned frosty during the last winter session after National Heralds case sprung to life.
Congress said there was no headway on the issue and described the meeting as mere optics, the BJP responded with charges against the ruling family in Congress and raked up Heralds case.
Naidus formal outreach was meant to seek Congress chiefs nod so that finer points of the GST bill can be discussed with the other leaders of the opposition party. The minister even offered to advance the upcoming budget session to take up the legislations. After Naidu sort her support, Gandhi said she would get back after holding discussions within her party.
Government has already claimed to have support of other parties over the GST Bill, but the Congress was stuck on a few issues in the proposed legislation. After a 20-minute long meeting with Gandhi at her residence, Naidu said that he asked the Congress President to take a final stand on the two pending bills relating to GST and real estate.
“I recalled to her that as per the discussion held earlier (PM meeting Sonia Gandhi), Congress party should finalize its stand. They had raised some issues, which were answered by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. Since the government has already spoken to Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma in this regard, I reminded her that a quick decision should be taken and we should move forward immediately on the GST and the Real Estate Bill,” Naidu said after the meeting.
On her part, Gandhi asked Naidu about the three main suggestions given by the Congress on GST. To which, the minister said the government had already responded on the demands. The Congress had made three suggestions in the bill including a constitutional cap on the GST rate, removal of one per cent additional tax on inter-state transfer of goods and a Supreme Court judge headed dispute resolution panel.
If anyone had doubts about the outcome of the meeting, it was clear the way both parties reacted following the meeting. Senior Congress leader and spokesperson Kapil Sibal said that there was no proposal from the government side. And there was no deadlock from Congress side. Obduracy from the BJP continues. If he had to accept our demands why would Finance Minister Arun Jaitley say that shrinking Congress strength in Rajya Sabha will make GST happen.”
The bitterness between the two parties was visible. Sibal added, “This is all optics. Naidu came and met Sonia Gandhi. They have to show all this. Had there been anything substantial, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Jaitley would have gone on twitter now.
The BJP hit back saying the opposition party was holding up development and was only worried about protection of its ruling family.
“It is clear that Congress is neither serious about the GST or the development of the country. It did not allow Parliament to function to protect a family,” BJP spokesperson Shrikant Sharma said raking up the issue of National Heralds.
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