ET Awards' Agenda for Renewal 2011: India Inc's darling CM Narendra Modi obstacle to GST, says Jairam Ramesh

Jairam Ramesh hit two birds with one stone when he launched a thinly veiled attack on Narendra Modi and taunted industrialists by suggesting that their “favourite chief minister” was the main obstacle to rolling out the “game-changer” goods and services tax ( GST).

“If you ask me if there is one decision that is going to transform the mood, the environment, the prospects for India, it is the GST. That is the one big game changer... and today the GST is being held back because of C o r p o r a t e India's favourite chief minister not coming on board,” he said.

Although Ramesh did not name Modi, the reference to Gujarat's chief minister, who has had several corporate chieftains lavish praise on him in the past for being an able administrator and being industry-friendly, was unmistakable.

“Everybody is agreed, his party is in agreement, but your favourite chief minister is holding it back,” Ramesh said, teasing the assembled industrialists by alluding to Modi as “the chief minister whom all of you are photographed with everyday”.

It was not just Modi who was in the firing line. Reliance chairman Mukesh Ambani, too, came in for some ribbing as Ramesh pointed to him as the person whose “persuasion” could make Modi change his mind.