BJP hits out at Cong; says Oppn party not serious about GST

Asserting that its focus was the nation's development, the BJP today accused Congress of being not serious about the GST, and said the opposition party's priority was "development and protection of its ruling family".

Both parties traded charges soon after Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu met Congress President Sonia Gandhi in a bid to seek her party's support for the reform bill, a move dismissed as "all optics" by Congress which invited barbs from BJP.

Ruling party's National Secretary Shrikant Sharma said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had earlier reached out to Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh but Congress was "never serious" about supporting the crucial bill.

Congress had appointed Mallikarjun Kharge, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma as its pointsmen to engage with the government but they never came together whenever they were invited for talks which rendered the exercise "futile", he said.

"It is clear that Congress is neither serious about the GST or the development of the country. It did not allow Parliament to function to protect a family," Sharma said in a dig at the Gandhi family.

The fact is that those accused in a case of "fraud" to the tune of Rs 5000 crore are "unable to digest" the success of Modi government, Sharma alleged, referring to the National Herald case in which Sonia Gandhi and her son and party's Vice President Rahul Gandhi are embroiled in.

Despite the negative attitude of Congress, the government has been able to put India on the path to development, he said, citing the "high growth rate" and "positive" assessment of India economy by international agencies like the World Bank.

Congress leader Kapil Sibal dismissed as "all optics" Naidu's meeting with Gandhi and alleged that the "obduracy" of BJP on the GST bill impasse continues.

Taking a dig at Sibal, Sharma said, he as a Union minister had "invented zero-loss" theory for the 2G scam and his charges today showed the "bankruptcy" of Congress.