With GST and noteban dominating the election narrative in Gujarat, former prime minister Manmohan Singh will hit the campaign trail in the textile hub of Surat on Saturday.
Singh, who addressed traders and small and medium entrepreneurs in Ahmedabad on the eve of the first anniversary of demonetisation, is scheduled to visit Surat, where the textile and diamond industry is unhappy over the implementation of the GST.
The Congress has decided to field Singh, considered to be an authority on the economy, to highlight the faulty implementation of the Goods and Services Tax and the ill-effects it has had on fiscal growth.
The former prime minister has rarely spoken since the Congress-led UPA’s defeat in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. But he hit the headlines after a brief intervention in the Rajya Sabha last year when he described demonetisation as “organised loot and legalised plunder”.
Addressing the business community in Ahmedabad on November 7, the former prime minister had criticised the Centre’s bullet train project, dubbing it an “exercise in vanity”.
With Singh’s prediction of a 2% drop in economic growth post-demonetisation coming true, the Congress has been encouraged to arrange speaking sessions for him at frequent intervals.
In the recent past, the former prime minister has delivered a lecture at the Indian School of Business Leadership in Mohali and addressed a political rally in Kochi.
Deccan Herald
