GST launched: Prakash Javadekar says Congress boycotting launch is like 'abandoning own child'

Bengaluru: Union Minister Prakash Javadekar on Sunday hit out at the opposition, especially the Congress, saying by boycotting the GST launch event at Parliament Saturday night they have “abandoned their own child”. “Its (GST’s) credit does not go to the BJP, the Congress or anybody alone. It is everybody’s credit and we want to share that with everybody. But, for the first time Saturday, I saw some parents abandoning their own children,” he said. [caption id=“attachment_3762899” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Prakash Javadekar. PTI[/caption] “The GST is their child. How can you abandon it? But that was how things happened,” Javadekar said at the 68th Chartered Accountants day celebration, organised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India in Bengaluru. The Union HRD minister said that ultimately, collective wisdom has prevailed and everybody has started implementing the GST and that is the best way forward. The Congress, the Trinamool Congress, the Left and some other parties had boycotted Saturday’s special midnight meeting convened by the government on GST implementation. Taking a dig at the opposition for boycotting the event, Ananth Kumar said, “As the Parliamentary Affairs Minister, I had requested every political party, everybody to participate in yesterday’s midnight event which unified India in the economic sense.” He said the presence of the president, the vice president, the speaker of the Lok Sabha, and former prime minister Deve Gowda, along with leaders of various parties have sent a “wonderful signal across the world that India has made a big stride in integration of the economy.” The opposition stood a divided house as several parties, said to be “like-minded” with the Congress, such as the JD(U), the BSP, the BJD, the Samajwadi Party and the Janata Dal(S) along with the NCP, a key constituent of the UPA, participated in the midnight launch of the GST. Speaking at the event, Union railway minister Suresh Prabhu termed the GST as a “game changer”. Himself a chartered accountant, he called on the CAs to think differently in the GST era. “Chartered Accountants should not only be tax consultants or auditors, but essentially business advisers. We should think about our role in advising businesses,” Prabhu said.