Amit Shah hits back at Cong’s pakoda jibe

NEW DELHI: Making his maiden speech in Rajya Sabha, BJP chief Amit Shah on Monday tore into the Congress over its criticism of GST, “failure” to tackle unemployment and other issues, as he listed his government’s achievements on various fronts.

Initiating the debate on the Motion of Thanks for the President’s address, Shah took on senior Congress leader P Chidambaram for his ‘pakoda’ jibe and said it was “better to sell pakodas than to beg”.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said in a recent interview that a person selling pakodas was employed.

“Those selling pakodas are self-employed. Can you compare them with beggars,” he asked and pointed out that a “chaiwala’s (tea-seller) son has become the Prime Minister today.”

In his over an hour-long speech, Shah said “I accept there is unemployment in the country. It is a problem. But you (Congress) have been ruling the country for so many years. We have been in power for eight years (including Vajpayee rule).”

The BJP chief also took on Congress president Rahul Gandhi who had described GST as Gabbar Singh Tax. “Gabbar Singh was a dacoit. Is collecting tax from people as per the law dacoity?” Shah said. He claimed that the GST collection is used to pay pension to retired defence personnel under One Rank One Pension, and to cover subsidies for the poor.

Shah further stated that the world had started looking at India differently after the historic surgical strikes in September 2016. The situation in Kashmir was now the best in 35 years, he added. Raising the matter of triple talaq, the BJP chief claimed that the Prime Minister had taken steps in favour of Muslim women, but the Congress had blocked it.

Training his guns at the Congress while listing the achievements of the Modi government, Shah described Modi as the only Prime Minister after Lal Bahadur Shastri who gave a befitting reply to the nation’s enemies.