On Rahul Gandhi's 'Gabbar Singh Tax' (GST), PM Modi fires 'dacoit' jibe and more

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has responded to the 'Gabbar Singh Tax' jibe on Goods and Services Tax (GST) by Congress president Rahul Gandhi. In an interview to news agency ANI, the prime minister said, "As for Gabbar Singh Tax, people who have seen only dacoits around them will naturally think of dacoits only!"

Blaming the opposition for trying to "misguide" people and indulge in "opposing for the sake of opposing", the prime minister also said that the GST has not been opposed by all parties in the opposite camps. 

Last year, Gandhi had compared GST with "Gabbar Singh Tax" to attack the BJP and PM Modi in the run-up to Gujarat Assembly elections 2017. The prime minister told the news agency that Gandhi tried to "provoke" people against GST but the people rejected him. 

PM Modi also defended his government on the job creation front, for which he has often been shredded by the opposition parties. The prime minister said that his government has been able to create more than one crore jobs in the last year. He added that people would no longer buy the opposition's claim that jobs have not been created. 

"When economy is growing at a faster pace, in fact fastest among the major economies, how will the jobs market not expand? When investment into and the pace of execution of infrastructure projects like making roads, laying down rail lines, setting up power generation including solar parks and transmission lines is at all-time high, how come the jobs will not be created," the Prime Minister said while outlining mobile manufacturing boost, Mudra loans, e-commerce, UDAN scheme, EPF numbers as some of the indicators for employment growth in the country.