New Delhi: The Rajya Sabha on Wednesday witnessed a high-quality debate before the GST Bill was passed.
Parliamentarians from across the political spectrum offered their nuanced views, arguing over the pros and cons of the biggest tax reform since Independence.
Amidst all the talk about rates, percentages and numbers, it was rather surprising to hear Indian Test skipper Virat Kohli's name during one of the speeches in the Upper House.
In order to highlight the delay by the political class in implementing this crucial reform, TMC MP Derek O'Brien used the 27-year-old Delhi batsman's example to drive home the point.
“Sir, I want to end with a little story. There was a boy of Class X at Xavier School in Delhi — a little known Delhi school compared to fancy Delhi schools — he was born at the time the GST concept was first introduced. He was in Class X in 2005. The boy, who was in Class X, is today winning us fame and great victory in West Indies. His name is Virat Kohli. There are millions of young Virat Kohlis across the country who are looking at us today. For their sake and for the sake of India tomorrow, we need to deliberate, we need to debate, we need to legislate and we need to implement the GST Bill. The faster we do it, the better it would be,” said O'Brien.
That however was not only reference to cricket and sport in the TMC leader's address.
“I was wondering whether the politics of GST will actually continue in November or this, otherwise, from a ping pong match, will become a cricket match, where you will win the first innings and then, the second innings in November will stop because of rain or something else," he said before.
Politicians are often criticized for delivering boring speeches in the two houses.
The debate surrounding the GST Bill was anything but boring and the likes of O'Brien deserve credit for that.
