Sonia meets Modi for tea

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi invited his predecessor Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi to his home for discussions over tea yesterday evening, in what was seen as an attempt to unlock the Goods and Services Tax or GST, the government's most ambitious tax reform.

This was the first face-to-face meeting between the prime minister and Sonia Gandhi since his BJP won a landslide victory in the national election last year, ending the Congress-led UPA's 10-year-rule.

Sources said the meeting was a "preliminary ice-breaker"; that this was more of a gesture by the PM to reach out to the opposition.

Speaking in Parliament just before the tea meeting, PM Modi had struck a conciliatory note and said: "Consensus is more important than majority rule."

Rahul Gandhi, the Congress party's number two leader, was not invited to the meeting that was immediately dubbed "chai pe charcha" by many.

"This meeting is happening after public pressure," Rahul said. Union ministers Arun Jaitley and Venkaiah Naidu also attended the meet. The Congress has repeatedly accused the government of failing to bring the opposition on board on GST, billed as the biggest tax reform since independence.

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.