Ahmedabad: Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi on Sunday once again attacked the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, challenging it to abolish the Goods and Services Tax (GST) on essential commodities, bring petrol, diesel, LPG under the GST, and cap the upper limit of the 'One Nation One Tax' at 18%.
Rahul's remarks assume political significance as Gujarat goes to polls in an atmosphere of widespread angst among manufacturers, traders and consumers over both - the rates of GST and its implementation.
The Gandhi scion, who is in Gujarat for the last leg of his Navsarjan Gujarat Yatra, called the GST council's decision to slash GST from 28% to 18% on 178 items "a victory of the people's voice".
Rahul has continuously taken on the Central government over its demonetisation drive and the implementation of GST. He said that the government should listen to people's voice and stop giving excuses.
At Palanpur, Rahul Gandhi attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi over demonetisation, saying, "Notebandi helped every thief in the country convert his black money into white. Still, Modiji is not willing to accept that it was a mistake."
Meanwhile, continuing his strategy of meeting people one-to-one, Rahul Gandhi met and talked to children and gave them chocolates, spoke to people from denotified tribes of North Gujarat, had an interaction with Congress Social Media volunteers and got off the bus several times to shake hands with enthusiastic youth along the route.
While most top BJP leaders state that Rahul Gandhi is not a serious political contender as far as campaigning for the Gujarat elections is concerned, the fact that they are responding to each of his charges is perhaps an indication of his impact on the ground.
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