Historic venue sees modest launch

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 30

Contrary to expectations, the little-after-midnight launch of the Goods and Services Tax at the Central Hall of Parliament today turned out to be a rather modest affair that went well with the sanctity of the historic venue.

Even the technical launch by President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi was not by the echo of a gong as earlier thought. It was through the press of a button that started on pre mounted TV screens a short video snapshot of what the PM described as a “Good and simple Tax’.

There were not many comparisons to the historic “Tryst with destiny” speech of India’s first Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru either. All PM Modi borrowed from the August 14-15, 1947 midnight speech of Nehru was a reference to midnight itself.

“At the stroke of midnight hour today, we will together determine the future course of this nation,” PM Modi said, borrowing from the Tryst with Destiny speech, which was part of the first midnight celebrations at the Central Hall, that was to later see three more such events, including today’s.

Dressed in white and blue, PM Modi spoke for around half an hour to an illustrious 800 strong gathering comprising seasoned politicians, lawmakers, industry doyens led by Ratan Tata, RBI Governor Urjit Patel, Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian and a host of guests. Amitabh Bachchan and Lata Mangeshkar, learnt to be on the invitee list, were not there.

The real star of the evening was Asim Dasgupta, the former Finance minister of the Left front Government in West Bengal and the principal architect of the GST law. Dasgupta, the first man asked to head a GST committee by the then Atal Behari Vajpayee government in 2000, found an elaborate mention in the inaugural speech of the day by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. Also in attendance was KM Mani, who, as FM of then Left Government in Kerala, succeeded Dasgupta as the head of the GST committee in 2011. It was after Mani quit owing to a scandal that Bengal FM Amit Mitra took the task of consensus building among states forward. Mitra was missing on account of a TMC boycott of the event.

Also missing were Congress, RJD, NC, DMK and Left leaders though SP was in full attendance with Ram Gopal Yadav and Naresh Agarwal present along with Akshay Yadav and even Amar Singh. BSP cief Mayawati sent MPs Raja Ram and Veer Singh. NCP’s Sharad Pawar came with all senior party colleagues and was seated in the front row beside BJP chief Amit Shah and party senior LK Advani. The sole Congressman present was Rajya Sabha Deputy chairman PJ Kurien, who came on account of his constitutional position.

The PM for his part emphasized the absence of Congress by insisting that the Central Hall, which witnessed India’s historic transition to Independence apart from the first meeting of the Constituent assembly, was the best venue to launch GST. Congress today boycotted the event objecting to the venue which has so far seen midnight celebrations only to mark India’s freedom.

PM went many steps further to sanctify the GST and its rollout from Parliament. He drew linkages between the Gita and GST; between the Constitution and GST and also between Sardar Patel’s act of unifying princely states to GST’s power of unifying the economy.

“Gita has 18 chapters and GST Council has had 18 meetings…Just like the Constituent assembly debated the Constitution for over two years, we have now debated GST for over 14…Just like Sardar Patel gave us national integration, GST will signal economic integration,” PM said, adding that the Central Hall was a perfect setting for GST launch as this place had seen the adoption of the Constitution on November 26, 1949.