For a meeting on GST, government must prepare a meeting ground: Ghulam Nabi Azad

NEW DELHI: The NDA government found itself grappling with the CBI raid on the Delhi Chief Minister’s Office and the recent acts of Arunachal Pradesh governor in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday even as it continued to make a last-ditch attempt to get Congress on board on the Goods and Services Tax bill. However, the raids appeared to have further vitiated the relationship between the government and Opposition and provided extra glue for Opposition unity against the government.

Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha cried foul charging the BJP government of acting against “non-BJP governments” in states to hint that the principle Opposition found little merit in holding a dialogue with the government.

BJP chief Amit Shah visited Parliament House soon after the raids and was huddled in a discussion with home minister Rajnath Singh, finance minister Arun Jaitley, parliamentary affairs minister M Venkaiah Naidu and external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj. The CBI raid and Kejriwal’s tweet against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in reaction were believed to have come up for discussion along with the fate of the GST bill and disruptions in Parliament.

“For a meeting (on GST) the government needs to prepare a meeting ground. The policy of the government is to destabilise non-BJP states whether it is in Himachal Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Delhi or in West Bengal. If government is doing this, where is the meeting ground?” Azad said on Tuesday.