The Congress on Tuesday slammed BJP president Amit Shah over his statement on selling pakodas and the Goods and Services Tax (GST) at the Rajya Sabha.
"It is very unfortunate that our country's youth who are talented and educated in various professions are sitting unemployed, and the ruling party is telling them to go and sell pakodas," Congress MP Ranjeet Ranjan said, reports ANI. "Never has any ruling party in the past made such a despicable and disgraceful remark, he added.
Ranjan also slammed Shah's statement that the GST was brought after all parties' consensus. "The fact that he has to give a justification is proof enough that he realizes he made a mistake. GST was Congress' proposal but we wanted to implement 14.5 per cent and BJP took it to 28 per cent. With the labour cost added, it increases to as high as 46 per cent," he said, according to ANI.
In his maiden speech in the upper house, the BJP chief had taken on senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram over his 'pakoda' jibe and said it was "better to sell pakodas than to beg."
In a recent interview to a TV channel, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said a person selling pakodas should be considered employed. in a recent interview that
Reacting to the PM's statement, the former finance minister tweeted saying, "Even selling pakodas is a ‘job’, said PM. By that logic, even begging is a job. Let’s count poor or disabled persons who are forced to beg for a living as ‘employed’ people.”
Congress leader Nasir Hussain also criticised Shah for including "vendors as jobs creation by their government.” “Post GST and demonetisation, the employment has come down, so now they feel that even selling pakodas, rolling bidis, rolling incense sticks," Hussain said.
Dubbing GST a scheme to loot people, Hussain said, "People of this country have realized what demonetisation and GST have done to them. This is why they (BJP) had come very close to getting defeated in Gujarat and they lost all the by-elections from Rajasthan to West Bengal."
In defence of the GST launched by the NDA government, Shah had stated in Rajya Sabha that the taxation system was implemented after everyone's consensus.
Noting that "Gabbar Singh Tax is named after the filmy dacoit" , Shah asked, "Is this (GST) dacoity? How much do those who have named this as Gabbar Singh tax understand? It is not dacoity but the revenues go to pay subsidies for various services of widows and the poor."
(With ANI inputs)
