Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Saturday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi of implementing the Goods and Services Tax to benefit only a few industrialists. During rallies in North Gujarat, he once again criticised the government over the new tax system, demonetisation, unemployment and development.
“It is a good thing that after pressure from Congress and the people of the country, the BJP government has brought many items from under 28% to the 18% tax bracket,” he said in Sabarkantha. “A government that can tell people at 8 pm it is going to demonetise currency within four hours does not know what is in the hearts of the people.”
The Congress scion added that the party will ensure that the “Gabbar Singh Tax” will become a “true GST” with only one slab of 18%.
He spoke on the Congress’ commitment to the employment guarantee scheme, Mnrega, saying the party spent Rs 35,000 crores on it. “But the Modi government allocated the same amount for the Tata Nano project in the state,” he said.
“The BJP told you there will be money, it didn’t happen,” he said at a rally in Idar. “They told you there will be jobs, it didn’t happen...In Gujarat, education is becoming inaccessible as 90% of the colleges are privatised and are in the hands of the rich. If the poor man wants to send their child to college, they have to shell out 10-15 lakhs. This is the reality in hospitals in Gujarat, too.”
During his three-day road trip, Gandhi will cover six districts of North Gujarat.
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