A day after Parliament was adjourned sine die , the Congress on Friday came down heavily on the ruling BJP, blaming it for the near washout of the monsoon session and not passing the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill.
“It is the BJP which is responsible for the blocking of the GST Bill by failing to take action in the wake of the acts of omissions and commissions of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje in the Lalit Modi controversy and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in the Vyapam scam,” AICC general secretary and senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh said here.
The Congress was the “author and architect” of the GST Bill and had been trying since 2006 to build consensus on the measure when the opposition was coming from the BJP, especially its government in Gujarat. He hit back at Finance Minister Arun Jaitley who has accused the Congress of creating obstacles in the path of national growth and development.
ADVERTISEMENT
Mr. Singh said it was the BJP that had delayed GST all these years. “Why Narendra Modi opposed the GST Bill when he was the Chief Minister of Gujarat.” Now, the BJP has been trying to divert the attention of the people form real issues by blaming the Congress for blocking the Bill, Mr. Singh said.
Speaking to presspersons after the party’s campaign in the city, which is going to civic polls on August 22, Mr. Singh took exception to the statements made by Ms. Swaraj against the Nehru-Gandhi family.