Stepping up his attack against the government over GST, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi today took the Gabbar Singh analogy further by referencing the Bollywood villain’s dialogue to say it was a tax that coveted people’s earnings. Gandhi, who had yesterday described the goods and services tax as “Gabbar Singh Tax” during a rally in Gujarat, today recalled a much quoted dialogue from “Sholay” to sharpen his attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“Congress GST = Genuine Simple Tax. Modi ji’s GST = Gabbar Singh Tax = yeh kamaai mujhe de de (give me the income),” Gandhi said on Twitter. Gabbar Singh was the name of the dacoit in the Ramesh Sippy-directed 1975 Bollywood blockbuster. The character, played by late actor Amjad Khan, says at one point of time in the film, “Ye haath mujhe de de Thakur (another character)”.
Gandhi had targeted the Centre over the issue yesterday in a rally in Gandhinagar and called for changes in the new tax regime to make it simple. “Their GST is not GST. GST means Gabbar Singh Tax. This is causing a loss to the country. Small shopkeepers are finished. Lakhs of youths have been unemployed. But they are still not ready to listen,” he had said. He had also stated that the Modi dispensation went ahead with its version of the GST despite the Congress warning the government about the tax regime’s “adverse impact”.
