One must truly stand in awe of the Congress party’s newfound expertise on the Goods and Services Tax. After years of deriding it as a ‘brutal’ and ‘Gabbar Singh Tax,’ they’ve now emerged as its most ardent champions, claiming that the Modi government is finally, albeit eight years late, heeding their visionary counsel. It’s a breathtaking performance of political revisionism, one that deserves a standing ovation for its sheer audacity.
It seems the Congress party, in its infinite wisdom, was simply playing a long game. They spent nearly a decade on the sidelines, loudly protesting a system that they, in their own time, lacked the courage to implement. The genius of their strategy, we now understand, was to let the current government do all the heavy lifting: the tough negotiations, the public education campaigns, the meticulous policy adjustments: so that when the system was finally perfected, they could swoop in and claim, ‘We told you so!’
The pinnacle of their foresight, we are told, was the proposal for a flat 18% GST rate across the board. A truly equitable system, where essential medicines, rice, and milk would be taxed at the same rate as luxury cars and cigarettes. For ex- an Audi of a billionaire will be taxed at the same rate as an Alto of a common man. One can only imagine the prosperity such a plan would have ushered in, had it not been for the Modi government’s stubborn insistence on a nuanced, pro-poor approach.
In truth, the Congress party’s attempt to take credit for these reforms is not a sign of political evolution; it is a symptom of political desperation. While they were busy crafting witty insults, the Modi government was busy building consensus and meticulously refining a tax system that is now a model of efficiency and fairness. These reforms are a direct result of a government that listens to its people and has the political courage to act: a concept that, to the Congress party, must seem as foreign as a tax cut.
