After Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) broke ranks with the opposition on Goods and Services Tax (GST), another Congress ally NCP today slammed the grand old party for boycotting the special programme convened by the Centre in Parliament to launch the landmark reform.
Senior party leader Praful Patel criticised the Congress, Trinamool Congress and Left parties for not attending the GST launch function saying, "All parties unanimously passed GST in Parliament. State governments of different parties approved the rates."
“Now why so much fuss over the launch function,” read another one of Praful’s tweets.
The party said that it will attend the government's midnight launch of the GST. Justifying its divergent position from that of most opposition parties, senior NCP leader Tariq Anwar said that his party had supported the legislation during its passage and there was no reason for it to skip the function, to be held in the Central Hall of Parliament.
NCP supremo Sharad Pawar will be present at the mega event, which will be attended by actor Amitabh Bachchan and industrialist Ratan Tata, among others.
Yesterday, the Congress, in an all-out attack on the government, called the event a ‘grand self-promoting tamasha (gimmick)’. Apart from the Congress, opposition parties such as the Left, the RJD and TMC have declared that they will skip the function. Former prime minister HD Dewe Gowda's Janata Dal Secular), however, said it would attend the programme.
The Congress also accused the NDA government of ‘insulting’ India's freedom struggle, as the previous three midnight functions held in the Central Hall were events related to the country's independence.
