SHILLONG: Senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid today criticised the BJP government at the Centre for rolling out the GST in a "hurry" and changing the rules "everyday".
"You (BJP) can’t run a government by changing every day. You must think seriously. My own view about this government is that economics of this government is absolutely zero," Khurshid, who was on a private visit, told reporters here.
"We have come crashing down and this is not something which you will fix overnight. This will take a lot of time to fix and when the economy falters it is a painful exercise to fix it," he said.
Questioning as to why an important economic exercise such as the GST was taken in a hurry, Khurshid said, "Please tell me why GST that came two months ago and yesterday changes have been made... if there are mistakes correct it. But why should the mistake be in the first place?"
"Because you (Government of the day) are in a hurry that I have to do it today so I am announcing it today.
The software was not ready, the hardware was not ready," he said.
Stating that he and the economists were critical of the GST, Khurshid said, "They changed it (GST) because elections are coming. They realised that the trading communities are very unhappy, they realised many other people were unhappy and so they have changed it yesterday once again."
The former Union Minister also attacked the NDA government on its policies. He said, "I don’t think they have done anything or policies that they can boast about. I don’t think they have done anything in strategic matters, security matters that they can boast about." He said, "They have not done anything on social
relations that they can boast about, in law and order and certainly they have not done nothing in the economy that they can boast about."
The senior Congress leader admitted that his party have not done well in many elections since 2014 but said the party is taking initiatives to counter the BJP.
"I will admit that since 2014 we have not been able to show any spectacular success. In UP for instance, BJP has a runaway victory which is unfortunate and very sad," he said adding that Punjab was a very good success (for the Congress) and Delhi for the AAP but it is a defeat for the BJP.
Meanwhile, commenting on the rumours of many senior Congress leaders in the North East deserting the party and joining the BJP, Khurshid said, "My only prayer is that people who leave the party in bad times should not be taken back again."