Dost Khan
TODAY, BJP AND CONGRESS, FROM FINANCE MINISTER TO THE LEADER OF OPPOSITION, ARE REJOICING AND THUMPING THEIR OWN BACKS OVER THE PASSAGE OF GST BILL, TERMING IT PRO-PEOPLE. THIS BE SO, WHY SO MUCH HULLABALLO FOR NEARLY A DECADE, ESPECIALLY THE PAST TWO YEARS. TAKING CREDIT IS ALRIGHT, WHO WILL SHARE THE BLAME FOR DELAY?
JAMMU: Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress are scoring points over the passage of the Constitution (12nd Amendment) Bill 2014 on Goods and Services Tax or GST, notwithstanding the crucial delay the two main parties caused just for their petty politics. First, BJP opposed the proposed Bill for five years, citing various flaws, which remain un-spelled and unanswered even now and then it brought the Bill with slight changes in 2014, soon after Narendra Modi took over the reins in New Delhi. Now it was Congress to do ‘tit for tat’ by raising less objections and creating most obstructions that saw logjam in Parliament, especially the Rajya Sabha at the strength of numbers.
The Bill on the GST has been in process for the past ten years. Today, when it has got the passage in Rajya Sabha, both BJP and Congress are trying to take credit for this piece of historic legislation being people-friendly. If so, then why obstructions for over a decade. This means that the people of India have been deprived of such a public-friendly reform for ten years. Who shall be accountable for that? BJP or the Congress! Precisely both, as it is the politicians who have betrayed this great nation and not the people who repose trust in them.
It is irony of India that every party, which remains in power wants to pass legislation to move the nation forward and take credit of passing those bills. At the same time, opposition parties try to make sure these bills are not passed and credit is not given to the ruling party or parties. In all these political battles, politicians forget that it is not BJP or Congress who is passing the bills but it is actually the people of India, who force their representatives to pass these bills, despite their party politics or vested interest. Congress did it with RTI and Food Security Bill. The same will be done by the BJP now on GST Bill, as it did on Land Acquisition Bill a year or so ago. In both the cases, it is the people of India who have been at receiving end.
Whosoever-BJP or Congress-may take credit for passing the Bill, it is actually the people of India who have forced them to move forward. The nation knows how both these parties, or for that matter, other parties played politics of blackmail to stall and reinstate this historic legislation. The hidden agendas were many which they achieved by one or the other way. The end-loser, however, has been the common man.
Publicly, the BJP has been accusing Congress of stalling Parliament proceedings over the Bill for two years, forgetting how they themselves made fun of Dr Manmohan Singh for processing these landmark legislations.
If the BJP led NDA made changes now to take Congress along for passing the Bill, same could have been done during the UPA regime to have this reform in place. Or, the suggestions should have been offered by the Congress when the BJP brought the Bill in 2014 and the latter should have shown same sort of urgency in soliciting and accepting the suggestions from the Congress.
Now that the Rajya Sabha has moved a step further in giving passage to this crucial bill, the politicians better have a little introspection over taking the country backwards for their personal ego and false prestige. While doing so, they will understand that it is ultimately the people who triumph, no matter the delays. The gloating or flaunting of the BJP and Congress over passage of the Bill is feeble and meaningless, as the politicians as a class stand exposed. The people of India have seen real faces behind deceptive facades. They know how the ruling and opposition parties were now trying to be complimentary and supplementary to each other for ‘understanding the essence of the bill’ which they claim to have resolved in true spirits of Indian democracy. What is their take on the melodrama in Parliament during the past nearly two years over the Bill, which saw the legislative business getting jeopradised in a big way? Politicians’ hypocrisy stands exposed. They better have some realization or else the people of this country will show them their horrific faces through the mirror.
