Senior AAP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh tore into Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday, taking potshots at him for preaching Swadeshi and hailing GST rate cuts after eight years of burdening the nation. The AAP MP asserted the Modi government must first return the lakhs of crores looted from citizens in the name of GST, a tax the BJP had once hailed as “revolutionary” but which in reality broke the backs of ordinary Indians.
He questioned why it took eight years for Modi to remember reducing GST rates and accused him of hypocrisy, pointing out that while the Prime Minister flaunts a Swiss watch, a German pen, Italian sunglasses, an American phone, foreign cars, and even helicopters, he dares to lecture the people of India on adopting Swadeshi.
Senior AAP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh stated, “When the Goods and Services Tax (GST) was introduced, it was said by the central government as if India was getting independent a second time. When this was implemented in 2017, so much praise was heaped upon it as if a great revolution was coming in the economy for the country. We were shouting and saying it was wrong. Our voices were not heard. The middle class’s backbone was broken. The common person’s backbone was broken.”
Stressing the burden on citizens, Sanjay Singh said, “Hundreds of thousands of crores of rupees in tax were heaped on this country’s people. It was loaded deliberately. And then people realised the government’s celebration was for taxes being increased for ordinary citizens. The GST rules had to be amended not once or twice but hundreds of times.”
“Besides that, in the name of diesel and in the name of petrol, hundreds of thousands of crores of rupees were collected as tax. And now, after eight years, the Prime Minister has woken up and says, ‘No, no, we have brought another revolutionary change; see, we have reduced GST.’ Then why did you raise it? Why did you loot the people of this country for eight years,” he asked.
Demanding restitution, the AAP MP asserted, “Prime Minister, return to the people the hundreds of thousands of crores of rupees that were taken from their pockets in the name of tax. You made your friends and companions — made them multimillionaires; you gave them railways, you gave them SAIL, you gave them electricity projects, you gave them water projects, you gave them roads, you gave them airports, you gave them ports — you gave them everything. What did you give to the people of this country?”
Challenging the government’s claims on tax cuts, Sanjay Singh said, “You unlawfully collected taxes from the people. Do not boast that you brought a big revolutionary change by reducing taxes or GST — you have no credibility. You have broken the trust of the people; you present everything with great fanfare and the result comes out absolutely zero.”
Pointing to the government’s talk of ‘swadeshi’ (self-reliance), he further added, “Now PM Modi is preaching swadeshi to the country’s people while a convoy of BMW cars accompanies him, foreign aircraft accompany him, foreign helicopters accompany him; he will wear Italian glasses, put on a Swiss-made watch, buy German cars to ride, and use American phones. Yet he tells the people to adopt swadeshi. Begin with yourselves. Because your rhetoric amounts to simply enjoying luxury while remaining dependent on foreign goods.”
Highlighting the China trade issue, Sanjay Singh said to PM Modi, “Our soldiers die in Galwan Valley and after that you have done trade worth 49 lakh crore rupees with China; you have imported Chinese goods worth 49 lakh crore rupees into India and destroyed the trade of Indian traders worth 49 lakh crore rupees. Sometimes BJP people tell us to boycott Chinese goods; you say we have good relations with the United States and buy from America, then you say boycott American goods. What is your policy? Which direction do you want to take the country?”
He continued, “Now America has imposed a 50% tariff on us and you have set the 11% import duty on cotton to zero — you have ruined crores of Indian farmers. This is your economic policy; this is your economic system.”
Demanding an end to rhetoric and restitution, Sanjay Singh said, “Therefore, Prime Minister, kindly stop these hollow words and hollow promises, and return to the people the money your government looted in the name of tax over the eight years; then the nation’s future can become strong.”
