Rahul Gandhi also attacked PM Modi for demonetization.
Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi today dubbed the Goods and Services Tax as 'Gabbar Singh Tax', naming it after Bollywood's iconic villain as he fired a fresh salvo at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the sweeping tax reform and demonetization.
As Gujarat headed for Assembly polls, Gandhi also said that the state is "priceless and can never be bought", a day after Patidar leader Narendra Patel claimed in Ahmedabad that he was offered Rs 1 crore to join the BJP, a charge rubbished by the saffron party. Gandhi brought up the issue of GST while highlighting the hardships it caused to people during a rally that marked the formal joining of OBC leader Alpesh Thakor into the Congress as part of the opposition party's strategy of broadening its political and social base to take on the BJP which has been in power in Gujarat for nearly two decades.
"Their (Centre's) GST is not GST. GST means Gabbar Singh Tax. This is causing a loss to the country. Small shopkeepers are finished. Lakhs of youths have gone unemployed. But they are still not ready to listen," Gandhi told the rally of Thakor community in Gandhinagar. Late Amjad Khan portrayed the character of dacoit Gabbar Singh in the Bollywood blockbuster 'Sholay' and immortalised him as the scariest villain in the Indian cinema.
Stating that the GST, in its present form, is not what the Congress had conceived, Gandhi said that although his party had warned the government about the adverse impact of the new tax regime (in the present form), the Modi government acted against its suggestions. Gandhi also asked the government to change the new tax system by making it simpler. Gandhi also mocked Modi over demonetisation announced by him on November 8 last year. "Don't know what happened, on November 8, Modiji says that this Rs 500, Rs 1000 notes, I do not like them, so from 12 at night, I am going to scrap it. Ha Ha Ha," he said. "He hit the axe, and for the first 2-3 days he could not understand what happened," he said, adding that "the prime minister only realised his mistake after 5-6 days". "Narendra Modi ji ruined the economy of the entire country," he alleged.
Gandhi attacked Modi and the BJP while latching on to the bribery allegation made by Narendra Patel, an activist of the Hardik Patel-led Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS). Gandhi said thousands of youths in Gujarat, belonging to all castes, will not remain silent now and their voices cannot be "suppressed" or "purchased". Narendra Patel, within hours of joining the BJP, alleged last night at a press conference that he was offered Rs 1 crore by the BJP and was given a token amount of Rs 10 lakh.
"This Gujarati voice is not an ordinary voice. This voice of Gujarat cannot be silenced or suppressed. You can offer any thing, (Rs) one crore, (Rs) 10 crore, (Rs) 50 crore, (Rs) 1000 crore, entire budget of India, entire money of the world, (but) this Gujarati voice cannot be purchased," Gandhi said. "In the past also, there were attempts to suppress this voice. British tried to suppress Gandhiji, first in South Africa, then in Gujarat and India. But the voice of Gujarat drove out that superpower from the country," he said.
Earlier in the day, Gandhi tweeted to say that Gujarat is priceless and can never be bought. "Gujarat is priceless. It has never been been bought. It can never be bought. It will never be bought," Gandhi said on Twitter. The BJP has rubbished Narendra Patel's charges and said it was a "drama" staged at the behest of the Congress. "All these allegations are false. It was a drama (enacted) by Narendra Patel at the behest of Congress," Gujarat BJP spokesperson Bharat Pandya said.
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