Tamil Nadu Bharatiya Janata Party president K. Annamalai has issued an apology after a video of a private conversation between Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and a renowned restaurateur Srinivasan, owner of Annapoorna Hotels in Coimbatore, went viral on social media.
Annamalai said he spoke with Srinivasan and urged everyone to lay the matter to rest. However, the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) in Tamil Nadu and Congress came down heavily on the finance minister and Centre for humiliating small business owners.
Annamalai tweeted, “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.” Annamalai called Srinivasan a pillar of Tamil Nadu’s business community, “contributing significantly to the state’s and nation’s economic growth”.
During a recent interaction with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Srinivasan, owner of the popular restaurant chain Annapoorna, also the honorary president of Tamil Nadu Hotels Association, raised humorously the issues faced by hoteliers due to varying GST for food items. The video went viral on social media and it reportedly irked the union minister.
Srinivasan jokingly said while bun is exempted from GST, 18% GST is imposed on cream. “Customers tell us you give us bun and cream separately, we will handle it,” he said. Srinivasan said due to varying GST on savouries and sweets, even the computer is finding it difficult to compute.
However, Srinivasan’s humourous take didn’t go down well with the union minister. Srinivasan met with Nirmala Sitharaman in private later, in presence of BJP MLA Vanathi Srinivasan and apologised. He also told the minister that was not a member of any political party. A video of this private conversation was allegedly shot by a few BJP functionaries present there and was released on social media.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said small business owners are humiliated. “When the owner of a small business, like Annapoorna restaurant in Coimbatore, asks our public servants for a simplified GST regime, his request is met with arrogance and outright disrespect. Yet, when a billionaire friend seeks to bend the rules, change the laws, or acquire national assets, Modi Ji rolls out the red carpet,” he tweeted.
The opposition leader said the last thing small business owners deserve is further humiliation. “When the fragile egos of those in power are hurt, it seems humiliation is exactly what they’ll deliver,” he charged. “MSMEs have been asking for relief for years. If this arrogant government would listen to the people they would understand that a simplified GST with a single tax rate would solve the problems of lakhs of businesses,” Gandhi added.
The DMK also called out BJP for humiliating a business owner. DMK MP Kanimozhi in a tweet asked union ministers and the union regime to not “hurt the self-esteem of Tamils”.