NEW DELHI: Deadlock continued on the GST bill after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today held inconclusive talks with Congress leaders to sort out differences to ensure its passage and the two sides will meet again later.
The Congress also made it clear that the engagement between them cannot be restricted to just one issue.
With only seven days left from tomorrow for the winter session to conclude, Jaitley and Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu hosted a lunch for Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, Deputy Leader Anand Sharma and Chief Whip in Lok Sabha Jyotiraditya Scindia to discuss the issue of GST and functioning of Parliament. It was Andhra food cooked at Naidu’s home that was served.
Citing absence of Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, who was not in Delhi, the party sought another meeting, which was readily accepted by the government, which is to keen to break the logjam on this key economic reform measure.
“Today’s talks remain inconclusive. It is a work in progress. There was no structured discussion today,” Sharma said noting that it was the first such meeting after Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached out to Congress President Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
He insisted, “Engagement between Government and Opposition cannot be restricted to one issue. After not engaging Opposition for 18 months, Government is desperate to discuss with us just one bill. First they should not be over-obsessed with one bill as other important legislations are also pending.”
The Congress leader used the occassion to target Modi lamenting that the measure could not be passed for five long years during the UPA-II due to the opposition by the present Prime Minister, who was then the Gujarat Chief Minister.
“The Indian economy has not gone into deep freeze” because of non-passage of the measure, said Sharma, who was Commerce and Industry Minister in the UPA government, charging the Modi government with “mismanaging the economy”.
That despite today’s meeting there was no let up in the confrontation between the two sides was clear with Jaitley remarking after the luncheon that the current session is also threatened with a washout.
“The last session of Parliament did not function. The current session of the Parliament is also threatened with a wash out. The reasons for the wash out of the current session keep changing by the hour,” he said.
Countering the charge, Sharma hit back, “we are not changing by the hour. Modi government is creating issues and trying to destabilise our governments in states.”
Venkaiah Naidu said “I am disappointed that they (Congress) are trying to invent some excuse or the other to disrupt Parliament. I am pained.
“We are not being able to discuss important issues and bills. They are inventing new causes, new excuses to justify disrupting the House. They raise issues outside but do not allow the House to function when the issues are debated in Parliament.”
Naidu at the same time said that he was “still hopeful” that the public opinion will prevail and “my friends in Congress” will “realize” that the House should run, debate and pass bills.
Amid a view in BJP that Congess protest on GST has escalated at Rahul Gandhi’s insistence, the Union Minister said “I am willing to go to meet him (Rahul) if that is the pre-condition for the passage of GST bill. I am also willing to take my Finance Minister to meet if that gets our GST bill passed.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had earlier invited Congress President Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for tea to discuss the GST impasse.
While the government is looking forward to meet Kharge, Sharma snapped saying “I do not have the tour schedule of Kharge”, when asked when was the Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha returning to the national capital for a talk with the government.
“We will have a final round of discussion (with the Opposition) before we bring the bill. We are ready with the bill,” Naidu said.
Government has expressed its keenness to get the bill passed in the current winter session to facilitate the roll- out of the measure from April next year. With both the Houses, particularly Rajya Sabha doing minimal business in the winter session, the government has not been able to push through its legislative agenda including GST.
The meeting today came as government decided to make a fresh bid to break the logjam. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Chief whip of Congress Jyotiraditya Scindia also joined the consultations later.
At the hour-long luncheon meeting in Naidu’s office in Parliament both sides stated their respective positions after which Naidu merely said “we will continue to meet”.
The meeting over the GST happens in the backdrop of a campaign of Congress in Parliament over National Herald case.
While the main opposition party has rejected the charge that it was blocking the GST Bill because of the court summons to party president Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in the National Herald case, BJP continues to insist there is a link between the two developments. (Agencies)
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