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Cong to boycott GST rollout ceremony

By The Assam Tribune

NEW DELHI, June 29 - The Congress today decided to boycott the government�s special midnight June 30 meeting on GST, calling it a �grand self-promoting tamasha (gimmick)�.

The party also accused the government of �insulting� India�s freedom struggle, as the previous three midnight functions held in the central hall of Parliament were related to the country�s independence.

�The Congress party will not participate in the special midnight meeting on the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax,� senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said.

He said while the Congress �accords a lot of importance� to the independence movement, the struggle may not be as significant for the BJP since �they had no role� in it. Azad said midnight events in Parliament had always been linked to India�s Freedom � the first was in 1947 to mark India�s independence, then in 1972 to commemorate its silver jubilee and in 1997 for 50 years of independence.

�The fundamental issue is that the celebrations are equated to the independence and its silver and golden jubilees. The GST session is an insult to the independence movement. We cannot support it,� Congress leader Anand Sharma said.

Another reasons for the party�s decision to skip the meeting, Azad said, was �the continued silence� of the Prime Minister, the BJP and its Chief Ministers over recent incidents of violence in the country.

�Cases of violence, lynching, atrocities on the poor, Dalits, farmers and women were on the rise,� he said.

The Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha congratulated �thousands of writers, intellectuals, journalists, ordinary people� for protests held across the country yesterday against the violence, and said neither the BJP nor its CMs were acting on continuing suicides by farmers and the lynching of ordinary people.

The decision to bypass the meet came after Congress president Sonia Gandhi met former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh along with other leaders today.

Sources said Singh was unlikely to attend the event, with a party leader holding the view that the party�s decision was applicable to all.

Trinamool Congress and the Left have already announced their decision to boycott the event. � PTI

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