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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Anti-Adani short-seller Hindenburg Research disbanded
Washington (PTI): Hindenburg Research, a US investment research firm known for short-selling, and whose reports resulted in wiping out billions of dollars of Indian billionaire Gautam Adani and his companies, has been shut down, its founder Nate Anderson announced Wednesday.
“As I’ve shared with family, friends and our team since late last year, I have made the decision to disband Hindenburg Research. The plan has been to wind up after we finished the pipeline of ideas we were working on. And as of the last Ponzi cases we just completed and are sharing with regulators, that day is today,” Anderson announced.
In the last few years, Hindenburg Research had launched a campaign against the Adani group. Its reports published since 2023 had resulted in billions of dollars of loss for the Indian billionaire. All the charges were denied by Adani and his companies.
The sudden and surprising announcement by Anderson comes within days of a Republican Congressman, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, asking the Department of Justice to preserve all the documents and communications related to the investigations of Adani and his companies.
Anderson did not give a specific reason for disbanding his organization, which is less than a week before the end of the four-year term of the Biden Administration and the swearing-in of Donald Trump as the 47th President of the United States on January 20.
“So, why disband now? There is not one specific thing—no particular threat, no health issue, and no big personal issue. Someone once told me that at a certain point a successful career becomes a selfish act. Early on, I felt I needed to prove some things to myself. I have now finally found some comfort with myself, probably for the first time in my life,” he said.
“I probably could have had it all along had I let myself, but I needed to put myself through a bit of hell first. The intensity and focus has come at the cost of missing a lot of the rest of the world and the people I care about. I now view Hindenburg as a chapter in my life, not a central thing that defines me,” he said.
In an interview to The Wall Street Journal, Anderson said he looks forward to taking up hobbies, travelling and spending time with his fiancée and their child, adding that he has earned enough money to provide for them in the future. He said he plans to invest his money in index funds and other low-stress investments.
Anderson said for now, he will be focused on making sure everyone on his team lands where they want to be next.
“Some are going to start their own research firm, which I will strongly and publicly encourage, even as I will have no personal involvement. There are others on our team who are now free agents—so feel free to reach out to me if you have a need for anyone who is brilliant, focused, and easy to work with, as they all are,” he said.
