To break the ongoing deadlock between the government and the opposition over passage of the GST Bill, which is stuck in the Rajya Sabha where the government does not have a majority, Jaitley will be meeting Congress leaders on Monday.
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Asked about high NPA levels in banks, Jaitley described the sector going through challenging times and said the problems of present day were a result of legacy issues like adhoc appointments and policy paralysis. “And their lawyers are not able to help them…and finding themselves in difficulty, they are holding the democracy of the country to ransom”, he said. “For corruption charges against you, you are holding Parliament hostage”, he said.
“After a hearing, the High Court dismisses it. Now one either go to trial court or they can challenge it in Supreme Court. ED has not issued any letter to anyone till date”, Jaitley said.
Referring to the National Herald case, he reiterated that the central government was having a political vendetta against the Congress party and that it was coming out of the Prime Minister’s Office.
On black money, the finance minister said: “There is black money both inside and outside the country”.
The government, he continued, would wait for the court verdict before taking any action.
He said Congress was committed to reviving and running National Herald, a newspaper established in 1938 by Jawaharlal Nehru.
“Your Finance Minister in his blogs and on Facebook says this is an offence under Income Tax Act”.
“Does he have the right to make statements like that? Nobody has lost any money or made any money in this”, said Sibal.
There were daily disruptions in parliament over the National Herald case, and no business was being transacted in the Rajya Sabha all this week. “I don’t think any notice were sent to any of the shareholders”.
“This government is acting on vendetta against the Congress leaders. Democracy is strengthened by Jan Bhagidari (people’s participation)”, said Modi at the Jagran Forum of Jagran News. “So, I think if this formula applies here then this formula applies there also”, Tiwari said.
The government has walked the extra mile to explain the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill to the Congress but the agenda of the principal opposition party, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said, is to “paralyse” the country. “One of the very senior BJP leaders set a democratic principle that obstruction in Parliament is part of parliamentary strategy”, said Sibal.
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Sharma said Congress is not just “anti-development” but also “anti-poor” as it is holding Parliament “hostage” to hide its corruption due to the “arrogance” of a family.
