BJP president Amit Shah on Monday slammed the Congress party and its successive governments’  track record on various fronts including eradication of poverty and unemployment as well as creation of basic public facilities, even as he hailed the “all-round, historic accomplishments” of the Narendra Modi government while claiming that it was dedicated to the cause of the poor and the farmers.

BJP president Amit Shah on Monday slammed the Congress party and its successive governments’  track record on various fronts including eradication of poverty and unemployment as well as creation of basic public facilities, even as he hailed the “all-round, historic accomplishments” of the Narendra Modi government while claiming that it was dedicated to the cause of the poor and the farmers.

Shah was delivering his maiden speech in the Rajya Sabha and was also initiating the debate on the motion of thanks on the President’s address to both Houses of Parliament that started the current Budget Session. He was elected to the Upper House in August 2017.During his 90-minute speech, Shah took on his Congress counterpart Rahul Gandhi for his  criticism of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and his sarcastic description of the GST as “Gabbar Singh Tax”.

Noting that Gabbar Singh was a dacoit character in the Bollywood blockbuster “Sholay”, Shah asked, “Is legally claiming taxes from people a dacoity? And where does this Gabbar Singh Tax/GST go?,” adding “it goes into the bank accounts of jawans for giving ‘one rank, one pension’; it goes into the bank accounts of widows of martyrs; it goes towards giving the poor women Ujjwala yojana (clean cooking fuel).

“Blasting the principal Oppposition party, Shah asked whether the Congress was inciting the people not to pay their taxes and whether such a move indicated “good politics”.Holding that the GST was a major reform which “realised the dream of one country, one tax”, Shah castigated the politics over this new indirect tax regime, saying on some critical issues there was the need for all parties to rise above narrow partisan politics.

He dismissed the charges that some BJP states, including the then Narendra Modi-led Gujarat government, had opposed the GST during the previous Congress-led UPA regime, claiming that the BJP had only opposed its ways since the states did not have trust in the then central government for compensating their losses.Shah also sought to project the Congress’s “hypocrisy”, saying its states were supporting the Centre’s measures in GST Council meetings.

The BJP chief conceded that there were teething problems in the GST’s implementation, but said the government was sensitive and was constantly ensuring correctives through the GST Council meetings.

Joining issue with senior Congress leader and ex-Union minister P Chidambaram for his swipe at PM Modi’s claim that even a person selling “pakodas” was employed, Shah said,”It is better for a youth to earn living by selling pakodas instead of being unemployed. Making pakodas is not shameful, what is shameful is comparing such a person with a beggar.” He highlighted that a “chaiwala (tea-seller)’s son (Modi) has become the Prime Minister today.”