ongress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said the Centre’s refusal to roll back the one per cent excise duty on non-silver jewellery was an attempt to ‘crush’ and kill the jewellery industry.
“This is not excise, but an assassination attempt on small traders and workers,” he told a rally of jewellers at Zaveri Bazaar. “Your battle is my battle, and the Congress’. Whatever pressure the government puts on us, the Congress will fight this battle — be it in the State, in the government or in Parliament.”
Accusing the BJP government of courting big corporates against the interests of farmers, small traders, Mr Gandhi said, “With big five-six corporates, the government tried to snatch away farmers’ land, but the Congress stood with them. The government had to backtrack. The government tried to enact the Land Bill thrice, but the farmers and the Congress didn’t let that happen.”
“The government thinks that it can easily crush you. That is why it has attacked you. The reality is your work is sought to be given to a handful of big companies.”
Mr Gandhi’s solidarity with the jewellers’ protest came on a day the Maharashtra jewellers’ body decided to temporarily suspend their strike till April 24, and mooted a fresh proposal to the Centre. Maharashtra Rajya Saraf Suvarnakar Federation president Fatechand Ranka said a delegation of jewellers was scheduled to meet Union Minister Piyush Goyal with a new proposal to replace one per cent excise duty with one per cent additional Value Added Tax. Several jewellery stores had opened their shutters by Tuesday evening.
Earlier in the morning, Mr Gandhi flew in from Nagpur and visited the Deonar dumping ground. He took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s flagship Swacch Bharat Abhiyan and backed his party’s demand for a closure of the ground.
“The Prime Minister talks about Swacch Bharat. But, merely raising slogans of Swachh Bharat and actually keeping your areas clean are two different things. People here are getting afflicted with TB. One child was even reported dead. The CM should take some action, close the dump,” Mr Gandhi told reporters after moving around the ground without covering his face with a mask.
