Ahmedabad, 24 September 2013

The Gujarat Congress regularly parades its national leaders and union minister before the media in Ahmedabad. Tomorrow Haryana minister Randeep Surjewala will be in city, today it was turn of Jairam Ramesh.

“Our task is not easy in year 2014,” Jairam Ramesh told media persons while addressing a press conference.

“We have been in power for last ten years. There will be anti-incumbency factor. But our strategy is positive,” he added.

Obviously Modi was Ramesh’s target, like every other Congress leaders. He said, “Our positive strategy is about ‘we’ and ‘you’, there’s no ‘I’ in our dictionary.”

Jairam said Congress’s fight is not with BJP, it is with RSS. Congress is in direct fight with BJP in six-seven states, in rest of the states Congress will need to fight with regional and other parties, he said.

Jairam Ramesh said he had only one question to ask to Mr. Narendra Modi and that was why Mr. Modi opposed proposed Goods and Services Tax(GST)?

He said GST was originally an idea of Atal Bihar Vajpayee government. Later the UPA continued to work on it. However it has not been implemented only because of one person and that is Shri Narendra Modi.

” On 24 October 2011 Sushma Swaraj told me that I shoudn’t worry about GST. She said GST was BJP’s one of the promises given in manifesto. She said Gadkari and Yashwant Sinha were also in favor of GST. When I asked about Mr. Modi’s objection, she assured me that the issue will be resolved. I met Mr. Modi separately when I was here to discuss the drought situation last year. Mr. Modi told me that he would look into it through officers. Every party, every leader wants GST, but one person Mr. Modi is not ready, and therefore GST has not materialized. I ask industry people why their friend Modi is against GST, but they have no answer. After all GST was BJP’s idea.”

Jairam clarified that final execution of Land Acquisition Bill will be a responsibility of the state government. If the state government doesn’t want to implement it, the central government can’t do anything in that regard.

He pointed out that Mr. Modi has not opposed Land bill, but he has written a letter to PM on Food Security Act, however the fact is that, Gujarat is the biggest gainer of Food Security Act when it comes to size of coverage.

The Gujarat government reacts to Jairam Ramesh’s GST remarks

Gandhinagar, 24 September, 2013

Gujarat government’s spokesperson minister Shri Nitin Patel and Saurabh Patel today strongly opposed Jairam Ramesh’s remarks against Modi over GST. They said Shri Narendra Modi has never opposed GST. Shri Modi was positive about GST when he met then Finance minister of UPA Shri Pranab Mukherjee. Shri Modi had i that meeting told then Finance Minister that GST’s proper implementation would be possible for the states only if Information Technology based network is in place. Shri Mukhrejee had supported Mr. Modi’s this point of view.

The decision to implement GST was taken by Shri Vajyapee govt in year 2002, but Finance ministry under UPA has failed to set up any infrastructure for execution of GST in its 9 years rule. To conceal this failure, Mr. Ramesh is blaming Mr. Modi.

Can Mr. Ramesh give answer on the tex structure issue? Even Congress ruled states seek CST compensation from centre when it comes to GST, but neither the central govt nor finance minister have paid any compensation.

It is Gujarat government’s duty to protect financial interest of the state. The union government has given no assurance on compensate the economic loss that the state would bear once GST is implemented. Instead of respecting federal structure, the centre is in process to amend constitution for GST without consulting the states over protection of their revenue.