GST Bill: Centre reaches out to Congress again

New Delhi: Accusing the Congress of not being serious about the Goods and Services Tax (GST), the ruling BJP on Thursday asserted that its focus is the nation’s development. The BJP said the Opposition party’s priority is “development and protection of its ruling family”.

Soon after parliamentary affairs minister M. Venkaiah Naidu met Congress president Sonia Gandhi in a bid to seek her party’s support for the GST Bill, both parties traded charges.

Congress leader Kapil Sibal dismissed as “all optics” Mr Naidu’s meeting with Mrs Gandhi and alleged that the “obduracy” of the BJP on the GST Bill impasse continues. BJP national secretary Shrikant Sharma said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had earlier reached out to Mrs Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh but the Congress was “never serious” about supporting the crucial Bill.

The Congress had appointed Mallikarjun Kharge, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma as its pointsmen to engage with the government but they never came together whenever they were invited for talks which rendered the exercise “futile”, he said.

“It is clear that the Congress is neither serious about the Goods and Services Tax or the development of the country. It did not allow Parliament to function to protect a family,” Mr Sharma said in a dig at the Gandhi family.