From Vande Mataram to UPI: Why is NC breaking ranks with Congress
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "From Vande Mataram to UPI: Why is NC breaking ranks with Congress")
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah
The NC-Congress alliance faces strain as Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah publicly diverged from Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on UPI transaction fees and singing Vande Mataram.
A fresh political disagreement has emerged within the NC-Congress alliance over the proposed framework for charges on certain high-value UPI transactions, with Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah defending the principle of recovering part of the cost of maintaining the digital payments ecosystem from businesses.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, however, has taken the opposite position, demanding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi withdraw what he has described as a “UPI tax” imposed on Indians. The disagreement marks the second instance this month in which the National Conference has publicly differed with its alliance partner, the Congress.
Earlier this month, the two parties had differing positions on singing Vande Mataram. The Congress had advised its alliance partners across the country to stand only during the first two stanzas, while the National Conference defended its position of standing throughout the song.
Abdullah, whose National Conference is an alliance partner of the Congress, defended the underlying rationale for charging businesses, while stressing that ordinary consumers should not be made to bear the cost.
He argued that businesses that benefit significantly from digital payments could cover part of the cost of operating and maintaining the UPI ecosystem, rather than individual users. His position is also broadly in line with the government's stated rationale for the proposed framework.
“This charge does not apply to everyone. As far as I understand, there is no charge on person-to-person money transfers. For individual consumers as well, there will be no charge unless they cross a certain ceiling. As far as I have understood, running the UPI system is not cheap. It costs a lot of money to operate and maintain it. And the truth is that when we get something for free, we often don’t appreciate it properly. The Government of India should make every effort to ensure that ordinary people do not have to bear the charges for using UPI. If companies are charged, I have no objection to that, because businesses also earn significant benefits through UPI,” said Omar Abdullah, Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir.
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Rahul Gandhi, meanwhile, has opposed the move and described it as a tax on Indians. He also linked the issue to what he alleged was excessive deference by the Modi government towards the United States.
“Indiraji was once asked whether she leaned to the left or the right, and her response was: ‘I don’t lean left, I don’t lean right. I stand straight. Modiji has a completely different concept. He is neither left nor right. He has decided to lie down straight and prostrate himself before Donald Trump. He has imposed a tax on every single Indian by taxing UPI and giving a huge amount of money to the United States. Modiji, please stop lying down in front of the United States. Have a spine, stand up, and withdraw the UPI tax,” said Rahul Gandhi, Leader of the Opposition.
The contrasting positions once again highlight differences between the two alliance partners, raising the question: Is the National Conference and Congress alliance headed for a fallout after the NC publicly expressed disagreements with Congress over multiple issues?
