FINANCE MINISTER SHOULD ALSO RECOGNISE LEADERS OF OPPOSSION PARTY AND INITIATIVES STARTED BY PREVIOUS GOVERNMENTS FOR THEIR CONTRIBUTION

[DEV KUMAR KOTHARI]

BJP HAS DONE WELL IN SHORT TIME IT DOES NOT MEAN THAT OTHERS HAVE DONE NOTHING.

No doubt BJP led government has been able to do many things which earlier governments could not do, although idea was floated by them.

Many things which were started by previous government (other than BJP Led) and have been continued by present government.

BJP is able to work more forcefully because of political advantage due to clear majority and weak opposition. When BJP was a strong opposition, we remember many good things and policies were opposed by BJP including GST, AADHAR, FDI, ….  which later on BJP led government implemented more vigorously.

Therefore, it becomes duty of present ministers to recognise contributions of government, ministers who did good job irrespective of fact that they belonged to any other party which is not affiliated or associated with BJP.

For instance let us talk about great Rajiv Gandhi , who was  the 6th Prime Minister of India from 1984 to 1989. He become the youngest Indian Prime Minister at the age of 40.  He was a well qualified and trained person as a technocrat and a politician by family back ground. His technological back ground, wider vision was and is still continuing advantage for the country.

He was courageous of publicly admitting that hardly 15 pc of public money reaches to the target and there is lot of siphoning of public money. In fact many policy initiatives were taken by him which started direct payment to beneficiary.  BJP led government has continued them and adopted the same line in other fields.

 The honorable Finance Minister in her budget speech on 001022020  referred statement of Rajiv Gandhi,  but   without naming the former PM.

We cannot and should not forget contributions of our past leaders irrespective of political party to which he belong or for any other reason.

BJP leaders  must also remember that they have received strong base for working and it is support of public that with clear majority BJP leadership is able to work vigorously. However, over confidence is not good.

FROM BUDGET SPEECH ON 01022020

11.   A former Prime Minister had once voiced a concern that the fruits of the welfare schemes were not reaching the intended citizens – the common and deserving citizen was only receiving 15 paisa of every rupee sent for him. Guided by “SabkaSaath, SabkaVikas, SabkaVishwas”, our government and our Prime Minister added manifold speed and scaled up the implementation of schemes and programmes that directly benefitted the poor and the disadvantaged.  I wish to list out only a few as examples: (a) welfare schemes with Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) embedded in them; (b) sanitation and water as provision of basic needs and as a measure of preventive healthcare; (c) healthcare, through Ayushman Bharat; (d) clean energy through Ujjwala and solar power; (e) financial inclusion, credit support, insurance protection to vulnerable sections and pension scheme; (f) digital penetration with broadband and UPI;(g) Affordable Housing for all through PMAY.

 Observation of author:

In opinion of author it would have been much better if the honourable Finance Minister had remembered and mentioned name of great Rajiv Gandhi , instead of simply saying a former Prime Minister ….

In concept of  SAB KA SAATH , why opposition is not taken as a SAATHI? Why credit is not given to previous governments who laid strong foundations, without which new government would find it difficult.

Why there is only tussle between political party (parties) in power and political parties in opposition?

GST – appreciation of former FM Shri Arun Jaitley.

On other hand we find that Honorable FM has appreciated late Arun Jaitley  in following words:

7.  Of the structural reforms, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) has been the most historic in our country.  Its chief architect is not with us today. I pay homage to the visionary leader late Shri Arun Jaitley ji. At the time of roll out of GST, he had said and I quote:

…..

Here Shri Arun Jaitley ji is remembered with honor, that is fine, but why not similar honor to former PM? Just because he  was from some other party – who is now in opposition.

It is wrong to say that Shri Arun Jaitely was chief architect of GST he was fine tuner,  facilitator and leading member of the GST implementation team.

 In fact earlier BJP had opposed GST when it was proposed for implementation by former government. We can I find many reports to that effect. Excerpts from some of news reports are given below:

GST  found mention for the first time when the then finance minister, P. Chidambaram, proposed the idea in his 2006-07 budget speech.

Thereafter, every finance minister who followed, dutifully paid lip service to GST.

Even the nudge from the 13th Finance Commission-headed by former finance secretary Vijay Kelkar-which included it as a recommendation, failed to galvanize the politicians-especially the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the leader of the opposition, which decided to play spoilsport.

              “ There was a time in the recent past when the party opposed it tooth and nail, with the Gujarat government, then led by Narendra Modi, describing it as “retrograde in nature and completely against the tenets of fiscal federalism”.

 We recall what the BJP had said.

 On February 20, 2011, Yashwant Sinha, a senior BJP leader and chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance, bluntly said:  "They are doing a wrong thing."

 Sinha said several states, including those ruled by the BJP, were opposed to introduction of the GST because of their own interests and not due to any partisan issue, reported Hindustan Times.

 "It is not Gujarat, it is Madhya Pradesh, which has been strongly opposing GST from day one,” added Sinha.

 On October 23, 2013, the Narendra Modi-led Gujarat government opposed the UPA government's attempt to pass the 115th Constitution Amendment Bill, 2011 to enact GST regime.

 Gujarat minister Saurabh Patel, who attended the national empowered committee meeting, said, "If the union government through an ordinance enacts the GST regime, Gujarat will have to bear ₹ 14,000 crore loss per annum due to the destination based taxation principle."

 Patel said that Gujarat is facing a severe problem of realization of revenue due to economic slowdown. "Yet the Centre has not yet released the pending compensation of ₹ 4,500 crore. This issue should be resolved instead of moving towards the constitution amendment. As suggested by the standing committee, broad consensus has not been arrived at on key issues concerning the implementation of GST," The Times of India quoted him as saying.

 On August 4, 2010, the Gujarat government made a detailed written submissions before Empowered Committee opposing GST, the Congress said. 

 Conclusion:

BJP leadership must admit about contributions made by earlier governments and strong foundation and many initiatives which were started by previous governments and continued by BJP/ NAMO led government.