Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai apologised on Friday for his party functionaries' sharing on social media a video of a private conversation between a hotel chain owner in Coimbatore and Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. Barely minutes after the video went viral, the DMK, Congress and other netizens criticised the BJP for allegedly forcing a reputed hotelier to tender an apology for his remarks on Goods and Services Tax (GST) on September 12 in Coimbatore.
In the controversial leaked video, Sri Annapoorna Restaurant owner Srinivasan could be heard saying to the Finance Minister that he was not affiliated to any party, before apologising. Only a day ago, he raised the issue of GST at an event attended by Sitharaman in Coimbatore and said the problem is that GST is applied differently to each item. "For instance, there is no GST on bun. But if you apply cream on it, the GST becomes 18 per cent. Due to this, customers, especially families, ask for bun and cream separately saying they will apply the cream on the bun themselves to save money," he had said.
"People say that the Finance Minister has levied 5 per cent GST on sweets and 12 per cent on namkeen because people eat a lot of sweets in the north and in Tamil Nadu, sweet, namkeen and coffee go together. Please charge uniform GST," Srinivasan had pleaded and jocularly said the computer was getting stuck because of this GST confusion. Sitharaman assured to consider it.
Later, speaking to reporters she had said that he had raised an issue which ought to be considered by the GST council. Coimbatore South MLA Vanathi Srinivasan who was present during the conservation, told media today that there was no need for the BJP to intimidate anybody. Amidst the criticism from several quarters, Annamalai said in a post on the social media platform X.
"On behalf of @BJP4TamilNadu, I sincerely apologise for the actions of our functionaries who shared a private conversation between a respected business owner and our Hon. FM. I spoke with Thiru Srinivasan Avl, the esteemed owner of the Annapoorna chain of Restaurants, to express regret for this unintended breach of privacy. Annapoorna Srinivasan Anna is a pillar of Tamil Nadu's business community, contributing significantly to the state's and nation's economic growth. I request everyone to lay the matter to rest with due respect," he said.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi took strong exception to the incident and commented that the owner of a small business, like Annapoorna restaurant in Coimbatore, asked for a simplified GST regime, but his request was met with arrogance and outright disrespect.