Sonia, Manmohan meet PM Narendra Modi

On the request as such, Singh is said to have only reached out to the Congress president, leaving it for her to decide on whether to involve Rahul Gandhi.

In a major development, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has invited Congress president Sonia Gandhi and former prime minister Manmohan Singh for tea after adjournment of Parliament.

Modi today invited the Congress leaders at his Race Course Road residence at 7 p.m, sources said.

Earlier, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has stated that stated Prime Minister Modi was prepared to talk to everybody to forge a consensus on the GST Bill.

Referring to the address of the Prime Minister at the all-party meeting, Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu said that the PM told the representatives of opposition parties that Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley would speak to them to address their doubts on GST legislation.

CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury said Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari had admitted a motion to discuss rising incidents of religious intolerance in the country.

“The government should come up with structured proposals on GST”, Sharma, chief tax negotiator for Congress and its deputy leader in the upper house, told Reuters.

“The government is also ready to take innovative suggestions from the opposition in accordance with the GST, Land acquisition, Real Estate bills, etc. We all want that there should be peace and prosperity in the entire nation and the government is committed for that”, he said.

The winter session of the Indian parliament starts today (Nov. 26)-and there’s a lot on the line for prime minister Narendra Modi.

The party also sought changes, including capping of GST rate at 18%, in the Constitution amendment bill, and doing away with 1% tax on inter-state trade.

The government has planned to implement the GST by the session of April 2016, but their deadline may be missed if the bill is not passed in this winter session. “Top ministers are present at the meet”, the PMO said in a tweet.

“The session can not be restricted to one bill of the government”.

However, the government soon realised that it could not overlook the Congress, as the GST Bill is a Constitutional amendment bill, thus requiring the approval of two-thirds of the House.

On the issue of reviewing some of the provisions of gold monetisation scheme so that it becomes attractive, Sinha said the government is in continuous discussion with all stakeholders and trying to find out difficulties.