Congress sticks to GST demands

Criticises govt's failure on economic front

The Congress Working Committee on Tuesday said it would continue to oppose the proposed constitutional amendment to the Goods and Service Tax (GST) Bill unless its demands were met. The panel, or the CWC, was also critical of the Narendra Modi-led government's inability to rein in inflation.

The highest decision making body of the Congress, in another move after a meeting, extended Sonia Gandhi's tenure as party president till December 2016. This puts to rest speculation of Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi being made party chief. The party's organisational polls have also been extended by a year.

The Congress's demand with regard to the GST were that the government address its concerns on the Bill and meet its demands for the resignations of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and the chief ministers of Rajasthan (Vasundhara Raje) and Madhya Pradesh (Shivraj Singh Chouhan).
 

Addressing media after the CWC meeting, senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said, "The monsoon session was disrupted not because of any Bill or GST but because our demands for the resignations was not met. Those demands remain."

The government was considering reconvening Parliament to pass the GST Bill. It would need Opposition's support in the Upper House to pass the Bill. "Nothing has changed between the just concluded Parliament session and now", the Congress said.

On inflation, economist and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressed concern about the economic situation.

Sonia Gandhi said Modi government's one year in office was nothing more than "hawaa baazi" (empty talk). "The economy is on a downward slide while prices continue to rise." The government had "failed abysmally to match words with deeds, to match media events with actual accomplishments", she said.

Rahul Gandhi urged party workers to highlight failures of the government on tackling the current agrarian crisis, farmer suicides, droughts and floods. The CWC congratulated Rahul Gandhi for spearheading the agitation on the land acquisition Bill, which had led to a "victory" for the Congress in forcing the government to scrap its anti-farmer legislation. Rahul Gandhi urged the party to be vigilant to ensure that the 2013 land act provisions were not diluted by state-specific legislations.

Party constitutional amendments that were ratified included increasing the reservation for weaker sections - Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes, minorities and women - in party posts from 20 to 50 per cent and reducing the term of membership from five years to three years.