New Delhi, June 29 (UNI) Announcing its decision to boycott tomorrow’s midnight GST launch at Parliament, the Congress today dubbed it just as a ‘’tamasha’ (‘spectacle) and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was insulting the ‘’freedom at midnight moment’’ by giving a similar importance to a taxation event. ``It is triviliasation of freedom at midnight moment. Such a sacred moment cannot be trivialised,' top Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma and Jairam Ramesh said at a press conference here. They said the Congress had ushered in a number of historic reforms like the RTI, the Food Security Act, the MGNREGA etc but never celebrated them in this manner. They also said it was ridiculous that Mr Modi was taking all credit for GST after opposing it for ten years as Gujarat Chief Minister. Midnight functions in the Central Hall of Parliament have been held only on three occasions in the country’s post Independence history—first in 1947 when the country got freedom, then in 1972 on the silver jubilee of the freedom and then in 1997 on the golden jubilee of the Independence, the Congress leaders pointed out. They said the second reason for the party decision to boycott tomorrow’s event was the present state of affairs, particularly when the country was grappling with farmers' suicides, incidents of mob lynching and a climate of intolerance. ‘’The Government does not care to notice that dalits and members of minority community were being killed brutally. No one is taking action against anyone. No attention is being paid to the Kashmir situation, the fall in the GDP,’’ Mr Azad, who is the leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, said. Leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha Mr Kharge said there should be no cause for celebration on launch of this GST regime as it would have to be amended soon because of the difficulties it would be creating for various sections of the people. ‘’They just want publicity. They are publicity master,’’ he said. Mr Sharma said the midnight ‘tamasha’(spectacle) in the face of the ugly realities of the country was unacceptable, and so the Congress can’t be part of it. He accused the Government of not having done proper consultations after the GST Bill was brought in.’’It is not a perfect bill, neither one nation, one tax, and the country is absolutely ill-prepared for it,’’ Mr Sharma said. Mr Jairam Ramesh said it was because of the BJP opposition that the GST which had been mooted as far back as 2004 could not be transalated into law. He said he met Sushma Swaraj on October 20, 2011 and asked here as to why the BJP was opposing it, and she replied that the main hurdle was that Mr Modi and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Chouhan were opposing the GST. Now this GST can be read as ‘’Grand Self-promotion Tamasha’’, Mr Ramesh said. GST is a very serious issue and very important reform, but not in this form, not in the way it was sought to be carried out, he said. UNI NAZ-VT SHK 2052