Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai on Friday apologised for the action of his party functionaries in sharing on social media a video of a private conversation between a hotel chain owner in Coimbatore and Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

Barely minutes after the video went viral, the DMK, Congress and other netizens criticised the BJP for allegedly forcing a reputed hotelier to tender an apology for his remarks on Goods and Services Tax (GST) on September 12 in Coimbatore.

In the controversial leaked video, Sri Annapoorna Restaurant owner Srinivasan could be heard saying to the Finance Minister that he was not affiliated to any party, before apologising.

Only a day ago, he had raised the issue of GST at an event attended by Sitharaman in Coimbatore and had said “the problem is that GST is applied differently to each item. For instance, there is no GST on bun. But if you apply cream on it, the GST becomes 18 per cent.” Due to this, customers, especially families, ask for bun and cream separately saying they will apply the cream on the bun themselves to save money, he had said.

"People say that the Finance Minister has levied 5 per cent GST on sweets and 12 per cent on namkeen because people eat a lot of sweets in the north and in Tamil Nadu, sweet, namkeen and coffee go together. Please charge uniform GST,” Srinivasan had pleaded and jocularly said the computer was getting stuck because of this GST confusion.

Sitharaman assured to consider it.

Later, speaking to reporters she had said that he had raised an issue which ought to be considered by the GST council.

Coimbatore South MLA Vanathi Srinivasan who was present during the conservation, told media today that there was no need for the BJP to intimidate anybody.

Amidst the criticism from several quarters, Annamalai said in a post on the social media platform X “On behalf of @BJP4TamilNadu, I sincerely apologise for the actions of our functionaries who shared a private conversation between a respected business owner and our Hon. FM.” “I spoke with Thiru Srinivasan Avl, the esteemed owner of the Annapoorna chain of Restaurants, to express regret for this unintended breach of privacy. Annapoorna Srinivasan Anna (elder brother) is a pillar of Tamil Nadu’s business community, contributing significantly to the state’s and nation’s economic growth. I request everyone to lay the matter to rest with due respect,” he said.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi took strong exception to the incident and commented that the owner of a small business, like Annapoorna restaurant in Coimbatore, asked for a simplified GST regime, but his request was met with arrogance and outright disrespect.

“Yet, when a billionaire friend seeks to bend the rules, change the laws, or acquire national assets, Modi Ji rolls out the red carpet. Our small business owners have already endured the blows of demonetisation, an inaccessible banking system, tax extortion and a disastrous GST. The last thing they deserve is further humiliation,” he said in a post on X.

Gandhi further said “But when the fragile egos of those in power are hurt, it seems humiliation is exactly what they’ll deliver. MSMEs have been asking for relief for years. If this arrogant government would listen to the people they would understand that a simplified GST with a single tax rate would solve the problems of lakhs of businesses.” DMK MP and party’s deputy general secretary Kanimozhi cautioned the BJP-led government at the Centre and also the union ministers not to taunt the Tamils’ self respect.

She quoted a couplet from Thirukkural which said those who are humble remain great and the lowly praise themselves pompously.

Condemning the “humiliation” of the third generation entrepreneur and an iconic personality of Coimbatore, AIADMK spokesperson Kovai Sathyan said in a post on X that the extraction of an apology showed the extent to which the BJP government was inebriated with power.

“The peak of arrogance is a sign of destruction,” he added.

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