Pranab Mukherjee has indeed become the Super FM, as A K Bhattacharya points out (“You can’t have it both ways, Mr FM”, August 11). This is indeed tragic since it has undone his mystique and his aura as a man of consensus. The reason why Mukherjee was chosen to head as many Group of Ministers as he does was that he was not confrontationist and was willing to take along diverse opinions. The fact that he wants to be the last word in any dispute between regulators shows Mukherjee is no longer happy dealing with divergent views. While this could still be forgiven since it is Mukherjee whom all the regulators concerned report to eventually, the stance on the GST is completely unacceptable. India is a federal republic and states must have their freedom to raise rates if they want to.
All that Mukherjee had to be worried about was states violating the discipline and competing to lower rates — if states charge higher rates than others, the market will punish them as industry will start moving out. A simple floor rate would have served the purpose. Instead, Mukherjee said he will be the final word on the subject.
The result will be no GST by April!
Ajay Kumar, New Delhi
