Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh on Friday accused Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi of “single-handedly” derailing the ambitious tax reform — GST — a brainchild of the NDA government, and championed by his Bihar party colleague Sushil Modi.

“The man who is the most powerful proponent of Goods and Services Tax (GST) today is Sushil Modi. But the most powerful opponent of GST is Narendra Modi.

“In many ways GST owes a lot to Sushil Modi. But the other Modi did not allow GST to happen. (It did not happen because of) single-handed opposition of Narendra Modi to GST.

So one Modi created GST, the other Modi made sure it did not happen,” Mr. Ramesh told PTI.

“He (Narendra Modi) communicates on everything under the sun, I would like him to communicate to the country why he is opposing GST, why he is opposing his own party, why he is opposing Sushil Modi, Sushma Swaraj, Nitin Gadkari, Yashwant Sinha. Let him explain,” the Rural Development Minister said.

He further said there is a universal consensus on GST and all industry associations and corporates who are supporting Mr. Modi are in favour of GST.

“All industrialists who appear on TV singing the praises for Mr. Modi want GST. His party is responsible for GST, his party manifesto says GST, his party leaders want GST but this one man has single-handedly derailed the entire introduction of GST,” he said.