Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and his Cabinet colleagues have been tasked with taking to the people the message that the Congress and the Left parties are anti-development. Opposition parties have raised several concerns over the GST Bill. The Congress wants to cap the GST rate at 18 per cent, add more items such as alcohol and electricity in the list, and axe the additional 1 per cent tax for manufacturing States. The Left feels the GST will hamper the concept of revenue neutrality, and give enormous powers to the Centre.

But before setting out to do battle with the Opposition, Jaitley might find it useful to read President Pranab Mukherjee’s latest book, The Dramatic Decade: The Indira Gandhi Years .

The President, who was leader of the Rajya Sabha between 1980 and 1984 — a position Jaitley now holds — has devoted a whole chapter to how he managed to get several important legislations passed even when the Opposition had a brutal two-third majority in Parliament. It reads like a ‘how to’ on parliamentary management. He explains how he reached out to various parties and leaders; how he held bilateral, multilateral and informal dialogues with opposition members on the nitty-gritty of legislations; and says how proud he was when Indira Gandhi congratulated him after the passage of a crucial amendment Bill. Mukherjee, like Jaitley, also had to see in his first year as leader of the House, the Opposition succeeding in amending the motion thanking the President for his speech in Parliament.

A little bit of history may help Jaitley figure out how to get crucial legislation passed without ramming it down. After all, no government has enjoyed a majority in the last three decades, but key Bills did get passed.

Senior Assistant Editor

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