It was his party (Congress) that stymied former prime minister and economist Manmohan Singh from getting the Goods and Services Tax (GST) implemented, said Union Minister of Health Mansukh Mandaviya, who praised Singh for his economic acumen and said it wasn’t like how Narendra Modi works, which puts the nation first.
He also claimed that PM Modi puts the country before winning elections while delivering an honorary lecture at the Babasaheb Ambedkar Open University in Ahmedabad on Saturday.
There’s a compilation of chapters that talk about Modi being the head of a government for 20 years in the book that got out earlier this year, written by educationist Sudha Murty, economist Arvind Panagariya, Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar, spiritual guru Sadhguru, and others.
According to Mandaviya, in the 1990s, when Narsimha Rao was prime minister and Manmohan Singh was finance minister, Singh suggested “one nation, one tax”.
It’s hard to deny that Manmohan Singh was among the world’s most renowned economists… as India’s finance minister, he had said ‘One Nation, One Tax’. After that, Manmohan became prime minister,” Mandaviya said.
Asked why Singh couldn’t implement GST as prime minister for 10 years, Mandaviya said, “One nation, one tax” was implemented in 12 countries and businesspeople weren’t happy owing to teething problems.
The health minister added, “Even if Manmohan Singh wanted to implement it, his party said to think of something else or we won’t form a government.”Whether the government comes to power or not (a second time), Modiji said ‘country first’. But GST has to be implemented for ‘one nation, one tax’. It’s the country first, no compromises.”
As the world’s largest democracy, India has to deal with administration, Mandaviya said, and added, “The challenge is that in democratic systems we have constitutional arrangements… There are political parties at all levels — national, state, regional… and they’re all about winning elections. PM Modi does not prioritize winning elections, but rather focuses on the country… The country comes first.”
Announcing his visit to Uzbekistan two years ago, Mandaviya praised PM Modi for working “holistically” towards all. Russia was a communist country when it separated from (then) Russia (Soviet Union). It is believed that communism is the only culture, no other culture exists, and such a belief led to communism’s fall.”
