Jaitley fears washout of Winter Session

“We will inform the countrymen through these protests that to save its top leaders in the National Herald case, the Congress didn’t allow the Rajya Sabha to function, and due to this attitude GST like bill of such public importance could not be passed”, the BJP leader added.

The bitter war of words between the top leaders of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, and the Congress top brass, in and outside Parliament, clearly shows nobody is serious about the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill, or for that matter any reform legislation.

While talks between the government and Kharge could did not fructify a day after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley held confabulations with leaders of Congress in Rajya Sabha, the government today again batted for early passage of the measure and urged Congress to think what “legacy” they would be leaving behind. When we raise crucial issues in Parliament, no action is taken.

“The Congress is responsible for disruptions in both houses of parliament and that too for an individual’s interests and by harming national interests”, BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told reporters after a meeting of the BJP parliamentary party.

On Congress demands for inclusion of a GST rate of 18 percent in Constitution Amendment Bill, Jaitley said tax rates are not mentioned in Constitution anywhere in the world.

He invoked Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru to remind Congress of the responsibility of MPs for governance of the country through Parliament.

The winter session of parliament will end on December 23.

Industry chamber FICCI along with Confederation of All India Traders, Assocham, the Confederation of Indian Industry and PHD Chamber is organising an interactive session here on Wednesday with Jaitley on the proposed GST, FICCI said in a statement.

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 reasons for the washout of the current session keep changing by the hour”.

“All of us, if not always, at any rate from time to time, must have felt this high sense of responsibility and destiny to which we had been called”. All this is being indefinitely delayed. “We have functioned, therefore, during these five years not only on the edge of history but sometimes plunging into the processes of making history”.