P Chidambaram Attacks Government Over Pulwama, GST

P Chidambaram was speaking at the launch of his book ‘Undaunted: Saving the Idea of India’ in Mumbai.

P Chidambaram slammed the Modi government for going back on its stance and aiming for a one slab GST, that the Congress had been fighting for. 

(Photo: Kamran/The Quint)

Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Monday, 4 March said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is taking political advantage of the Pulwama attack and its aftermath.

Speaking at the launch of his book Undaunted: Saving the Idea of India in Mumbai on Monday, Chidambaram also attacked the government over implemantation of a “flawed GST”.

Chidambaram said that the PM is accusing the Congress of politicising the issue but he himself has done that by bashing the party in all his political campaigns in the past 14 days.

“When he says we are questioning Indian Army, who is questioning Army, Congress President was the first to tweet ‘I salute IAF’. We are not questioning Indian military forces. Prime Minister is politicising Pulwama and its consequences. He is trying to take political advantage,” Chidambaram said, as quoted by ANI.

"Sometimes I do not understand what the prime minister wants to say. Not a day has passed in the last 14 days when he hasn't made a political election speech in some part of India. He has used every speech to bash Congress and its leadership. Now that's politicisation," he added. .

Chidambaram's statement came while several Opposition parties have asked for the proof of the strikes carried out by the IAF on Balakot and the number of exact casualties inflicted on terrorists.

"As a proud citizen, I am prepared to believe my government. But if we want the world to believe, the government must make the effort (to explain), not indulge in Opposition-bashing," Chidambaram had said in a tweet on 3 March.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 2 March had slammed the Opposition for doubting the IAF air strikes in Pakistan amidst a debate in the country over the casualty inflicted by the IAF.

‘Govt Implemented Flawed GST’

Attacking the Centre over multiple GST slabs, Chidambaram said that the basic principle of GST was nullified.

“Close on the heels of demonetisation, they implemented a flawed GST. The design was flawed, the implementation was flawed,” he said.

On pointing out that it was the Congress’ idea, Chidambaram said that the design that the Modi government implemented wasn’t theirs.

“What are the two central ideas of GST? One, it is a single rate. And second, it is a non-cascading tax, which means, there will always be input tax credit and output tax liability. Now you've distorted both by having multiple rates and now you're removing input tax credit in many, many areas. If you remove input tax credit, you go back to the cascading regime of sales tax. The two central ideas of GST have been thrown out of the window,” he said.

When asked what will be the one rate that he would have applied, he said that the figure would be the one recommended by the Dr Arvind Subramaniam report, which is between 14-15 percent.

“It will be one rate. And one rate means what Dr Arvind Subramaniam said. It will be in the transition period, a standard rate minus, a standard rate and a standard rate plus. But that's of transition. Eventually it will be one rate,” he said.