Surat, famous for its wholesale textile market and diamond merchants, is where the “Gabbar Singh Tax” swipe of the Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi finds the most resonance.
The city was the hometown of Sanjeev Kumar, who took on Gabbar Singh as the legendary Thakur on screen. Posters of the actor were back on the streets after the Congress coined the term to reach out to textile traders and small entrepreneurs who were harried by the Goods and Service Tax and form one of the most influential sections in the city.
The GST prominently figures as an election issue in Surat, which votes in the first phase on December 9. The Congress’s comeback bid in Gujarat hinges on how well it can breach the BJP strongholds of Surat and the rest of south Gujarat. In the 2012 Assembly elections, the BJP won all 12 seats in Surat and 28 in the region. The Congress presence has been restricted to the largely tribal district of Dang and the fruit-growing districts of Valsad and Navsari.
But with its focus on economic issues such as the GST and demonetisation, the Patidar factor and land acquisition and other problems faced by farmers, the party is hoping to reverse the trend.
Leading the charge is Tarachand Kasat, president of the All-India Textile Traders’ Association, who has joined the Congress after being an active BJP member for over three decades. Sitting in a sparsely furnished office of a new shopping-cum-business complex, Mr. Kasat dismisses the recent changes made in the GST.
Just a ‘lollipop’
“It is nothing but a lollipop. Earlier, there was no tax on cloth, but now they have imposed it. You must realise that a sari that is sold in a showroom goes through 27 processes — from yarn to the final product — and many of the people who are engaged are not educated and literate to fill multiple forms,” Mr. Kasat says.
For much of July after the GST roll-out, the textile market on both sides of the main ring road flyover of Surat had seen massive protests. The wholesale market remained shut for weeks. Now, it is business as usual — or so it seems.
“Under GST, traders like me whose turnover is lower than ₹20 lakh are exempt. But without a GST registration, neither my supplier gives me raw material nor the courier and cargo companies accept any consignment,” says Navinbhai Gonawala, 61, who had to buy a laptop and a desktop just to fill the offline and online GST forms.
“The government introduced such an important law without educating the masses. Yet people will vote for [Prime Minister Narendra] Modi in these elections as he alone is capable of handling the situation,” he says.
“Listen, in Gujarat, the BJP means him and everyone will vote for him.”
The BJP is banking on such personal popularity of the Prime Minister to overcome challenges such as the discontent over the GST and the Patidar agitation.
A ‘non-issue’
C.R. Patil, MP, says GST is no longer an issue. “How can you call a government tax system Gabbar Singh Tax? ... [it] shows Rahul Gandhi’s immaturity,” he says.
“You see initially traders were made to feel scared and the system also failed. But now it has been simplified.”
How many seats will the party win? “We will win all 12 seats in Surat and 31 in south Gujarat. This time, we will improve even in Dang,” he says.
Mr. Kasat, as expected, differs. The ruling party will not cross 15 in the region this time, he says.
