The Congress on Thursday said it would skip the government's June 30 midnight session for the launch of the goods and services tax, prompting more and more opposition parties to jump on the boycott bandwagon.
While the Congress, Trinamool Congress, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Samajwadi Party and Left parties announced they would not attend the special celebrations announced by the government, the Janata Dal-United said it would leave the decision to its MPs.
The Congress, in an all-out attack on the meet convened by the government, called it a 'grand self-promoting tamasha (gimmick)' to gain publicity.
The party also accused the government of 'insulting' India's freedom struggle, as the previous three midnight functions held in the central hall of Parliament were related to the country's independence.
This was a reason why it had decided not to attend the session, leaders said.
"The Congress party will not participate in the special midnight meeting on the implementation of the GST," senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad asserted.
The Trinamool Congress was the first to announce its boycott.
But the JD-U walked a tightrope, and said it had left the decision to its MPs, even as its two allies in Bihar announced they were staying away from the GST celebrations.
The Nitish Kumar-led party, sources said, was earlier in support of attending the event, but was wary of further alienating its allies, the Congress and the RJD, since it had already created a rift in the bloc with its decision to support the National Democratic Alliance's presidential candidate.
"It is just a reform measure. The way the government is projecting it as India's economic liberation is very unfortunate," JD-U spokesperson K C Tyagi said.
He said the party supported the GST, but had left it to its MPs to decide whether they wanted to attend the event.
Azad took a potshot at the Bharatiya Janata Party, implying that it had little to do with India's freedom movement. While the Congress party 'accords a lot of importance' to the independence movement, the struggle may not be as significant for the BJP since 'they had no role' in it, he said.
He pointed out that midnight events in Parliament had been linked to India's Freedom -- the first was in 1947 to mark India's independence, then in 1972 to commemorate its silver jubilee and in 1997 for 50 years of independence.
"The fundamental issue is that the celebrations are equated to the independence and its silver and golden jubilees. The GST session is an insult to the independence movement. We cannot support it," Congress leader Anand Sharma told the media in the presence of party leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Jairam Ramesh.
Lalu Prasad's Rashtriya Janata Dal toed the Congress line, and said it would not be present in Parliament on Friday.
The Left parties, too, have opted out, CPI leader D Raja said.
"The Left will not participate in the midnight GST meeting. People are agitating across the county. There are serious apprehensions in the minds of people over GST's implementation. We cannot celebrate when people are agitating," the Rajya Sabha member said.
Communist Party of India general secretary S Sudhakar Reddy said the party had taken this decision after discussions with its MPs.
"They (the government) are doing this in a hurry without giving it proper time," Reddy said.
CPI-Marxist general secretary Sitaram Yechury said he would not attend the midnight meeting.
He, however, said while his party was not boycotting the meet, it had also not issued a whip to its MPs on this.
When a party issues a whip, its MPs have to follow the party position or face disciplinary action. So in not issuing a whip, the CPI-M would indicate that no action would be taken if the party's MPs chose not to join the gathering.
Yechury has also been critical of the 'hurried manner' in which the government has planned the GST launch.
The Congress said it was opting out for another reason -- 'the continued silence' of the prime minister, the BJP and its chief ministers over recent incidents of violence in the country.
"Cases of violence, lynching, atrocities on the poor, Dalits, farmers and women are on the rise," Azad said.
