Arrogant Congress now irrelevant, says Javadekar

Union Environment and Forest Minister Prakash Javadekar, who was in Lucknow, also claimed that the government will get the GST Bill passed in Rajya Sabha where NDA has sufficient support.

Javadekar meets Governer Ram Naik at Raj Bhavan, in Lucknow on Friday. PTI

In a scathing attack, the BJP Friday termed the Congress as “anti-poor, anti-progress and and anti-democracy” for obstructing Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill and said the party, like the Britishers who ruled India, thought it will “never” lose power, but with time lost support and became “irrelevant”.

Union Environment and Forest Minister Prakash Javadekar, who was in Lucknow, also claimed that the government will get the GST Bill passed in Rajya Sabha where NDA has sufficient support.

“The government has the required numbers in Rajya Sabha to get the GST Bill passed, but Congress did not let the House function. Congress is the only party against the Bill and it has no majority in Rajya Sabha on it,” Javadekar said. When asked, Javadekar did not disclose the names of the parties that he believes will support GST Bill in Rajya Sabha. The Union Minister claimed that some non-NDA states too are on board on GST.

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Javadekar claimed that the Congress had “decided right from the beginning” to stall the two Houses as it was yet to overcome the humiliating defeat in Lok Sabha elections.

“Like British rule, Congress had a notion that they will never get out of power, but with time they lost power in states and became irrelevant. Democracy is not in its nature. They want to stall the progress of the country,” he said.

Claiming that Congress party leaders were arrogant and “Gandhi Parivar” had never been away from power for a long time, he said, “BJP has come to power with clear majority and the Narendra Modi government is functioning in the interest of nation. Congress has understood that it will be out of power for at least 14 years and that is reason they are obstructing functioning of the Parliament”.

He also downplayed SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav’s sudden breaking ranks with Congress in Parliament and said it should not be seen through the prism of CBI probe into corruption charges against former Noida chief engineer Yadav Singh.

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“Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has not given any clean chit (to Yadav Singh). If you see the footage in which the question was asked and the manner in which Jaitley responded, its meaning will become clear,” Javadeker told reporters here.

His comments came against the backdrop of state unit of BJP alleging that Yadav Singh was patronised by both the previous BSP regime and current SP government.

To a specific query whether the reply given by Jaitley was in view of the equation in Rajya Sabha where NDA does not have a majority, he said, “All I will say is that CBI inquiry will be conducted impartially and those involved will be exposed.”