Congress, TMC, Left to boycott GST midnight launch

New Delhi, June 29

The Congress will skip the GST rollout event the government is holding in the Central Hall of Parliament at midnight on Friday.
The decision, top sources said, was taken by Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Thursday in consultation with former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other senior leaders, who felt the rush to mount a dramatic rollout of a half-baked scheme was not a good idea and was not in favour of either the consumers or traders.
Manmohan Singh, whom the government invited to sit on the dais during the special launch event, will also give the ceremony the miss.
Asked if Singh would attend, a senior Congress leader said, “When the party decides to do something everyone follows the decision.”
The Congress is also miffed with the government for planning a midnight launch of the uniform national tax from the Central Hall of Parliament from where first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru delivered the historic ‘tryst with destiny’ speech on the occasion of the nation’s freedom.
The Congress feels comparing that moment with the GST rollout is an attempt to undermine the historic significance of the past event.
Senior Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, Jairam Ramesh and Randeep Surjewala will on Thursday evening officially announce the Congress Party’s decision not to attend the GST event and give reasons for it.
Trinamool Congress has already announced its decision to boycott the event.
The Left leaders are also not inclined to attend the special GST meeting and are set to skip it, along with some other Opposition parties.
CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury has already questioned the government on “hurrying” into introducing GST and recalled that the BJP had opposed the system when it was in the opposition.