Govt calls meeting on GST with Congress

He said Congress is committed to reviving and running National Herald, a newspaper established in 1938 by Jawaharlal Nehru.

On a day when senior union ministers and Congress leaders met over a South Indian lunch, hopes further faded on the passage of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in the Winter Session.

Congress isn't letting the Parliament function over the National Herald case alleging political vendetta by BJP after the Delhi High Court refused to quash summons to its leaders including party chief Sonia Gandhi and Rahul.

The Winter Session of the Parliament has witnessed repeated disruptions.

The Congress managers have adopted a new strategy in Parliament saying its protests had no links with the developments in the Herald case and the opposition party was merely flagging the need for action against some BJP leaders who the Grand Old Party has alleged were tainted.

This being the case, both the sides are just using the GST Bill to play the game of political one-upmanship for now. Earlier Prime Minister Narendra Modi had invited Congress President Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on tea to discuss the GST impasse.

Without naming Congress president Sonia Gandhi or Rahul Gandhi, Jaitley said the Congress leaders have got stuck in a "chakravyu" created by their own deeds and are now obstructing Parliament for it.

He said the current was also threatened with a wash out. He also said that they are yet to hear from the government on the three important amendments the party has proposed to the bill, including an 18 percent revenue neutral rate for CGST. Speaking at the Aaj Tak Agenda programme, Jaitley said the Congress was changing stance everyday as it believes none other than persons from one family have the right to rule the country.

He appealed to Congress and and its friends not to do now what they had done in the monsoon session "a washout" and listed key legislative businesses on wait including GST which would "bring prosperity to the country". All this is being indefinitely delayed. Mr Gandhi said the Congress was particularly opposed to enabling the government to levy unlimited tax, as per a provision of the GST Bill in the present format. "Court exonerated him, he never used parliamentary forum, he never mobilised people to demonstrate, had he given a call, lakhs of people would have followed him but he did not do it because we respect Constitution, judiciary and the system", he said.