The by-election for the Kanyakumari constituency is set to take place following the passing away of Vasantha Kumar, a Congress MP. Vasantha Kumar’s son Vijay Vasant is contesting on behalf of the Congress party. Former Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan is contesting on behalf of the BJP against him.
In light of the same, during the election campaign, Congress candidate Vijay Vasant has spoken critically of the GST scheme introduced by the central Modi government. But the late Congress MP Vasantha Kumar had wholeheartedly welcomed the GST scheme. BJP spokesperson SG Surya pointed this out on Twitter. “Your father was a nationalist. He did not do low quality vote bank politics like you,” he said. Vijay Vasant responded on Twitter, saying, “I support the GST brought by the Congress and not the GST brought by the BJP.”
BJP spokesperson SG Surya then replied to this saying, “Are you ready for a direct discussion on GST? Choose the place and site for the discussion yourself. But like Udayanidhi, the head of your UPA family, I know you will block me. So I will post some facts here. Major manufacturing states like Gujarat and Tamil Nadu opposed the GST of your Congress because:
1. States will lose revenue by shifting the GST tax point from the point of production to the point of sale.
2. The Minister of Finance has full VETO powers over the decision of the GST Council.
But in the BJP’s GST,
1. We have a constitutional guarantee of 5 years to offset losses to the producing states.
2. The removal of the VETO power of the Finance Minister violating the sovereignty of the states (at the request of the Left Government of Kerala) was also supported by the DMK.”
He continued, and said, “In 2013, your own Kerala Congress government and the Maharashtra government vehemently opposed the GST of the Central Congress government. If your GST was as good as you said, why did your own governments oppose it? Speak a little truth in your politics. Learn to respect your father as well.” It remains to be seen whether Vijay Vasant will respond to all these posts, or accept his challenge for an open debate.
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