On July 1, the GST was implemented in all the states of India except Jammu and Kashmir even though the state government run by coalition partners Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) and the Peoples Democratic Party – (PDP) tried all the political manoeuvres to rope in the support from all the mainstream political parties.
Even after two meetings with the leaders of mainstream political parties, the state government has failed to build the consensus. And the two main opposition parties National Conference and the Congress have openly termed the implementation of GST a stunt by the centre government to erode the special status of the Jammu and Kashmir. After holding the first All Parties Meeting that was chaired by the J&K chief minister Mehbooba Mufti, only BJP seemed to be in hurry for the implementation of GST in the state while all the other mainstream political parties want answers from the government for safeguarding the fiscal autonomy guaranteed under Article 5 A.
However, unsatisfied by the leaders of ruling coalition party, especially J&K’s Finance Minister, Haseeb Drabu opposition parties trained its guns of the state government and blamed its leadership for helping Centre in eroding the special status of J&K by surrendering the financial autonomy to the Centre under the garb of GST. The leaders of opposition parties blamed the state finance minister for failing to do the ground work.
While government has blamed opposition for indulging in politics on the issue of the GST, however, opposition reminded J&K Finance Minister Drabu of his vehement opposition when his party was in the opposition. The special session of J&K Legislative Assembly was adjourned on the first day of the business that exposed the nature of home work government has done to build the consensus. On the other hand members of civil society and trader bodies as well as industrialists had warned government of dire consequences in case the GST is implemented in the state.
Trade bodies and civil society want certain guarantees which government has so far failed to give. Under the present political uncertainty that is covering the Valley even a small incident could snowball into a big controversy and opposition parties are all out to exploit it and use it for the political purpose. Once again government has convened the special session of the Legislative Assembly as this time government looks serious to pass the GST bill, however, opposition will not give any concession to the government and will not easily budge so that PDP-BJP leadership will have last laugh.
Time and again government has been highlighting the safeguards it has done to protect the special status of the state, neither opposition not the separatists as well as common people are ready to accept the government’s decision. Failing to build consensus, the government had again convened the special session of the assembly, though opposition parties have already said that they won’t accept it in the present form, the government however has decided to table it in the assembly as a proposal and pass it without the support of the opposition legislators.
The BJP-PDP has the numbers, however, by tabling it kiln the House both the parties especially PDP want to portray that they have tried to be transparent even by tabling it in the assembly. The opposition has already started raising questions over the way government has been behaving to pass the bill.
As per the opposition it is not the state but Centre that is in hurry to pass this bill. Recently, Union Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley had shot a letter to J&K government for implementation of the GST. Now it remains to be seen what new additions have been made in the bill after chief minister Mehbooba Mufti met former J&K deputy chief minister, Muzuffar Baig who is considered as legal luminary. And if government pass the bill without any safeguards it will definitely have ramifications in future.
The editorial appeared in print edition of July 5-11, 2017.
