Politics over GST exposes cracks in Opposition unity

fragile unity of the Opposition was shattered for the second time in a week when three parties broke ranks with the Congress and joined a government function to rollout the goods and services tax (GST).

The NCP, SP and JD(U) attended the glittering event that began on Friday night and stretched past midnight at Parliament’s Central Hall.

The Congress, Left parties, DMK, Trinamool Congress and some others boycotted the event, calling it a self-promotion exercise of the government.

President Pranab Mukherjee and PM Narendra Modi pressed a button to implement India’s biggest tax reform since Independence that will unify the country with a single tax, though with different slabs. NCP’s Sharad Pawar and SP’s Ram Gopal Yadav were seated in the front row, along with BJP chief Amit Shah. Shah was seen talking to Pawar through most of the event.

CPM’s Asim Dasgupta, a former West Bengal finance minister who headed the GST committee in 2000, was also present.

The government requested the Congress and other Opposition parties to attend the event, but it did not cut much ice with them.

“A reform that holds great potential is being rushed through in a half-baked way with a selfpromotional spectacle #GSTTamasha,” Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi tweeted.

The Congress position, however, did not impress its ally, the NCP. Pawar was present when UPA nominee Meira Kumar filed nomination papers on June 28, but went along with the JD(U) to take an independent line on GST.

Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) had broken ranks with the Opposition to support NDA’s presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind.