The Congress on Tuesday attacked the Centre on the issues of GST, Chinese incursion and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s foreign visits.
The party said that India has not benefited “even a bit” and that only time will tell about the gains from Modi’s current visit to Israel even as it accused the Centre of not taking Chinese incursions seriously. It asked the Government to take proper steps to counter a possible attack or speedily engage with Beijing through diplomatic channels.
Former Union Minister Ajay Maken claimed Modi’s last “64 visits in more than 3 years” have catered only to domestic Indian audience through “televised shows” instead of ensuring concrete gains for the country. “Only the time will tell how India will benefit out of the 65th visit, but if you look at the track record, India has not benefited a bit out of his last foreign visits,” Maken said at AICC briefing. The party’s remarks came as the Prime Minister left on a three-day visit to Israel, the first by an Indian premier to the country.
On the issue of Chinese incursions, Maken asked how the Government intended to combat repeated “incursions”, when it was “downgrading” the threat as “transgressions”. “On the one hand, the Prime Minister is on foreign visits. On the other, we have seen that our Government itself is not taking the incursions seriously,” Maken alleged.
“Our Government calls the incursion a transgression. When you only will downgrade the incursion as transgression, how will you fight itIJ” he asked.
The Former Minister said the BJP-led NDA Government needs to prepare itself on the ground, “be it on borders shared with China or Pakistan” for any possible attack.
Asked about his views on the Government’s “proactive” deployment of Indian security personnel in Doklam area near Sikkim, Maken said had the Government been proactive, there would be “no incursions” in the first place. “This Government only talks...,” he said.
Congress also demanded that the five per cent GST levied on domestic lPG cylinder be removed as it was burdening the poor. lPG has been put in the five per cent GST slab. Earlier a two to four per cent VAT was imposed on lPG in some states. Maken accused the Government of not passing on the benefits of drop in global crude oil prices to people of the country.