Congress hits roads with ‘Gabbar Singh Tax’ procession

SURAT:

Congress leaders

took out a unique election campaign in the country’s biggest man-made fabric (MMF) wholesale market in the city on Tuesday to capitalize on textile traders’ anger against the implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST) by the central government recently.

They took out ‘Gabbar Singh Tax (GST)’ procession in the

textile market area

on Ring Road by enacting a scene from blockbuster film ‘Sholay’. Around 50 people were dressed in black clothes, similar to that of Gabbar Singh and his dacoits. There were Gabbar and Sambha riding horses, but handcuffed with GST pasted on the former’s shirt. Gabbar’s gang members walked on foot behind the horses and were handcuffed too. The person enacting the role of ‘Thakur’ was telling onlookers that ‘Gabbar Singh tune bahut tax khaya hai, aab panja kha.’

The procession started from Nawab Bungalow in Salabatpura and moved around at NTM and Sri Ram Market. It was halted on Ring Road by the police who detained four persons, including Congress councillor Aslam Cyclewala. Gabbar Singh Tax was coined by Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi during one of his public meetings in Gujarat.

Cyclewala told TOI, “The procession was to create awareness among textile traders about GST being Gabbar Singh Tax and that only Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi can provide solution to the issues faced by the traders.”

Union finance minister Arun Jaitley, who was in the city on Sunday, had invited textile leaders to New Delhi where tax authorities will be asked to resolve the procedural issues being faced by them under GST.

Cyclewala added, “Many textile traders have been ruined by GST. Those who were owners of firms are now working on a monthly salary of Rs 20,000. More than 100 shops have closed in the last two months. Still, BJP believes that textile community will vote for it on December 9.”