If elected, Congress to bring one tax, remove GST: Rahul
Bidar (Karnataka), Aug 13 : Again dubbing the Goods and Services Tax (GST) as the Gabbar Singh tax, Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Monday said his party, if elected, would introduce one tax and remove the new indirect tax regime with five slabs.
"As soon as the Congress returns to power at the Centre in the next general elections, we will bring a single tax and remove the 'Gabbar Singh Tax' with five slabs," asserted Gandhi at a huge party rally here in Karnataka.
Gandhi coined the GST after the famous Bollywood villain Gabbar Singh in the blockbuster "Sholay", which was shot near Ramanagara near Bengaluru.
Claiming that the Congress would form the next government at the Centre after the Lok Sabha polls, due by May 2019, Gandhi told the gathering that the party would listen to the people and fulfil their wishes.
"We will form and run a government that will do what the people want. We work for the benefit of farmers, youth, poor and small businesses," Gandhi said at the party's Janadhwani (voice of people) rally at Nehru ground in the state's north-west town, about 690 km from Bengaluru.
Urging the people to reach out to the party cadres in the southern state for securing justice, Gandhi said it was the Congress which introduced Article 371J for educational and employment reservations to the natives of the Hyderabad-Karnataka region.
"The BJP said it was not possible to bring Article 371J but we brought and proved it wrong. It benefitted the local people in getting jobs and admission to medical and engineering colleges in the region.
Notified in November 2013 during the UPA tenure at the Centre, Article 371J of the Constitution is aimed at all-round development of the state's six northern districts, including Bidar.
Mocking Prime Minister Narendra Modi for allegedly failing to generate 2-crore jobs or deliver on promises he made four years ago, the party president said in contrast the Congress was doing its best in fulfilling the promises it made ahead of the May 12 state assembly polls and as an alliance partner in the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S)-led coalition government in the southern state.
"We promised during the election to waive crop loans of farmers. We are doing whatever we have promised," noted Rahul.
"Modi waived loans of industrialists in crores but not a rupee of farm loan across the country. Yet he goes around talking about the farmers' welfare and claiming to be working for them," alleged Rahul.
Ridiculing Modi for saying a 'dhabawala' (food carriers) used technology to make fuel from the waste in the gutter, Gandhi lamented that the Prime Minister thinks even making snacks like 'pakodas' and carrying tiffin boxes are job creators for the youth.
Regretting Modi's 'silence' over atrocities on women and sexual assault on girls at home shelters in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, Rahul said the former's call for 'beti bachao, beti padhao' (save a girl child and educate a girl) was hollow, as there is no let-up in violence against them.
Party's national secretary and its state in-charge K.C. Venugopal, party's leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, former Union minister Veerappa Moily and the party's state unit president Dinesh Gunde Rao were also present at the rally.
"I'm confident our party will win the Lok Sabha polls with a majority. The BJP came to power only through lies, but people are aware that all promises they made were only lies. In all sectors, the Modi government has failed," Rao tweeted.
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Unnao rape case: SC defers hearing on CBI's plea against suspension of Sengar's life term
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Monday deferred to the first week of May the hearing on a petition filed by the CBI challenging the suspension of life imprisonment of former BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar in the 2017 Unnao rape case.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Sura Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi said that the matter will be taken up after a nine-judge bench completes hearing on the Sabarimala review proceedings.
Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Sengar, raised the issue of non-hearing of the pleas in another case related to the alleged custodial death of the victim's father in the Delhi High Court and said that a 10-year jail term was handed down to Sengar in that case.
"Ten years is likely to be completed soon and yet no substantial hearing has taken place in the high court. I should get bail in this matter," he said.
It was alleged by him that even the victim's lawyer is taking adjournments in the high court.
Lawyer Mehmood Pracha, counsel for the victim, said that only one adjournment has been sought in the high court.
The CJI noted the consent of both sides that no adjournment will be sought in the Delhi High Court in another case involving Sengar as one of the accused.
"The lawyers will extend full cooperation (in the HC)," the CJI said.
On December 29, last year, the top court stayed the Delhi High Court order suspending the life sentence of expelled BJP leader Sengar in the 2017 Unnao rape case and said he shall not be released from custody.
The bench, hearing the CBI's plea challenging the high court order, said that substantial questions of law have arisen in the matter that require consideration.
The apex court had also issued notice to Sengar seeking his response on the CBI's plea.
The bench said it was conscious of the fact that ordinarily, when a convict or an undertrial was released on bail pursuant to an order passed by a trial court or the high court, such an order should not be stayed by it without hearing such a person.
It noted that Sengar was also convicted and sentenced in a separate case and was still in custody in that matter.
"In the peculiar circumstances of the case, we stay the operation of the impugned order dated December 23, 2025, passed by the high court. Consequently, the respondent (Sengar) shall not be released from custody pursuant to the said order," the bench had said.
The top court said various substantial questions of law have arisen for its consideration in the matter.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the CBI, urged the bench to stay the high court order, saying it was a "horrific rape" of a minor child.
The Delhi High Court had, in its December 23, 2025, order, said that Sengar has been convicted under Section 5 (C) (aggravated penetrative sexual assault by a public servant) of the POCSO Act but an elected representative does not fit the definition of a "public servant" under Section 21 of the IPC.
The high court had suspended the jail term of Sengar, who was serving life imprisonment in the Unnao rape case, till the pendency of his appeal, saying he had already served seven years and five months in prison.
The high court order has sparked criticism from a section and there have been protests by the victim, her family and activists.
Sengar had challenged a December 2019 trial court verdict in the case. He had, however, remained in jail since he was also serving 10 years' imprisonment in the custodial death case of the victim's father and has not been granted bail in that case.
The rape case and other connected cases were transferred to Delhi from a trial court in Uttar Pradesh on the directions of the Supreme Court on August 1, 2019.
Sengar's appeal against his conviction in the case of the custodial death of the survivor's father is also pending, where he has sought suspension of sentence on the ground that he has already spent a substantial time in jail.
In its plea filed in the apex court, the CBI referred to its verdict in the L K Advani case in which it held that anyone who holds public office, like MPs or MLAs, would be deemed a "public servant".
It contended that the high court erred by declaring that Sengar, an MLA when the offence was committed, was not a "public servant" to be prosecuted under POCSO and granted him bail.
