Start-ups and intolerance can’t go together, says Rahul Gandhi

A “compromise with the government is possible on GST and it is by sitting across the table, but the government is not willing to do so”, said Rahul, a Lok Sabha MP.

Mr. Gandhi said there were three issues on which the Congress differed with the BJP on the Bill.

He said Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who was now pushing the Bill, did not allow it to pass for seven years.

“Jaitley doesn’t have to tell me GST is good. But we don’t want a GST without a cap on taxes, we want a limitation on the maximum tax that can be charged”, he added.

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh for what he termed as their “rigid thinking” which hampers creativity and start-ups in the country. Gandhi also said that the RSS has a very “rigid vision” for India and that start-ups require free movement of ideas. “I am much happier to live in India…China is a stronger country but India will move ahead”, Rahul said. “I don’t think politicians should be running cricket”.

Ahead of the launch of the Centre’s ambitious startup mission, Rahul Gandhi trained his guns at the Narendra Modi government, attacking them on the “intolerance” issue, blaming them for the logjam in Parliament and even putting a question mark on the way the Pathankot attack was handled.

Hitting out at the ruling BJP-led NDA’s policies, the Congress leader said India is essentially an agrarian economy, but the present government was not doing enough for the farmers. Gandhi urged the students not to put “labels on people, industry or things, as labels are human inventions” and stifle growth.

Mr. Gandhi also accused the BJP of categorising and labelling people.

“Saying this is a Hindu, this is a Muslim, this is a woman…hides values”, he said.

“Startups require a whole set of eco systems that allows entrepreneurs to grow including infrastructure and regulation. When you let people who don’t know what to do, do it, you get into a problem”, he said. The biggest problem that India is facing today is massive centralisation of power. “He should introspect before he speaks”, he said, accusing Mr Gandhi of resorting to misleading rhetoric to divert the attention of the people from “his bail in the Rs 5,000 crore National Herald case”.