New Delhi: Shortly after it was announced that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had invited Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh for discussions over tea, Rahul Gandhi said that the government had been forced to take that step.
"This meeting is happening after public pressure. This is not the way he functions," said Mr Gandhi, who has not been invited.
PM Modi's invitation to his predecessor Dr Singh and the Congress president comes against the backdrop of the government's attempts to push the blocked Goods and Services Tax or GST, the government's most ambitious tax reform.
Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said that the government wants smooth functioning of Parliament and "we hope the meeting would be fruitful." Sources say though GST could dominate the discussions, it is not the only agenda of the discussions.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Mr Naidu will also be present at the meeting.
"We brought the GST bill in the first place and we want it passed. We have raised our concerns on three issues and if they agree to it we will pass GST," Mr Gandhi told reporters, adding: "We don't want the common man to suffer, that is why we want a cap on the tax."
Mr Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh met to discuss the PM's invitation.
The former prime minister told reporters after the meeting: "We don't know the agenda of the meet... he has invited us to come to his residence and we will see what he has to say."
Yesterday, speaking exclusively to NDTV, Sonia and Rahul Gandhi highlighted the issues that they said were non-negotiable on GST - the 1% tax for manufacturers, the constitutional cap of 18 percent for GST rate and an independent dispute resolution mechanism for GST.
The government wants to implement GST by April 2016, but the deadline may be missed if Parliament does not pass the bill in the winter session.
The GST will create a single market in India after doing away with state levies and is expected to boost the economy.
