No ease of doing business for small traders: Rahul Gandhi

Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday hit out at the Narendra Modi government saying that there was no ease of doing business for small traders in the country.

He said that while the government may claim that India has jumped 30 spots to be among the top 100 countries on the World Bank's ease of doing business ranking list in 2018, it is not the case in the country.

"Jaitley ji sits in his office and listens to outsiders. I would request him that he visit small traders or mid-sized business persons and ask them whether ease of doing business has improved for them or not. The entire country will in one voice say that there is no ease of doing business. Your demonetisation and Goods & Services Tax (GST) has hit us hard," Rahul Gandhi said at a rally in Jambusar, Bharuch district, South Gujarat.

Rahul is on his third leg of the three-day visit to poll-bound Gujarat from Wednesday.

During this leg his four-phase Navsarjan Gujarat Yatra, Rahul will cover 30 Assembly constituencies across Bharuch, Tapi, Navsari, Valsad and Surat districts in south Gujarat.

Addressing farmers and small traders, Rahul said there was a massive anger across the country, courtesy implementation of demonetisation and the GST.

"They have destroyed the economy by demonetisation and have ensured that the GDP fall by 2%. But he (prime minister) did not stop at that. He introduced GST with multiple tax rates and high rate of 28% in one go," he said. "I have given GST a new name - Gabbar Singh Tax. It means that the poor who sweats sees his money stolen."

On prime minister's promise to unearth black money in Swiss Bank accounts, Rahul said Modiji did not understand that not all the money is black.

"It's been three years of Modi government. Show me one person whom they have put in jail for having black money in Swiss Banks…Look at Vijay Mallya, he is enjoying in London. What has Modi ji done?"

Hitting out at the Gujarat model of development, he said this model has left every community in the state sad and angry.

"The only people who are not unhappy are the 5-10 industrialists who are supporting Modi ji and the BJP. Everyone else is on the streets agitating," he said pointing at series of ongoing protests by Patels, Dalits, OBCs and farmers.

"The Gujarat model is take water, electricity and land of the people and give it to industrialists. In this model, if you do not have money no work will be done."

Earlier at the rally, Ahmed Patel, political advisor to Congress President Sonia Gandhi, countered allegations levied against him of having links with two Islamic State (IS) terror suspects caught from South Gujarat recently. One of the suspects worked in a hospital where Ahmed Patel was a trustee till 2015.

Chief Minister Vijay Rupani had questioned Ahmed Patel on what links he had with the IS suspects. "I did research and found that he worked in hospitals instituted by BJP leaders. Care Hospital, where IS suspect Mohammed Kasim worked was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi," Patel said.

He added that it does not augur well for a person of the stature of the chief minister to levy such allegations.