Amid a political slugfest over Congress’s “wealth redistribution” poll promise, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a scathing attack on Congress leader Sam Pitroda for advocating an ‘inheritance tax’ law, claiming the Congress does not want the countrymen to pass on their property to their children.
While addressing an election rally in Surguja, Chattisgarh, PM Modi asserted, “The royal family’s prince’s advisor has said that more taxes should be imposed on the middle class. Now these people have gone one step further than this, Congress says that it will impose an Inheritance Tax, and it will also impose tax on the inheritance received from parents. The property you have accumulated through your hard work will not be given to your children.”
The Prime Minister said that the mantra of the Congress is “Loot zindagi ke sath bhi zindagi ke baad bhi” (Loot, during the lifetime and after death).
“The claws of Congress will snatch that too from you. As long as you are alive, Congress will impose higher taxes and when you are no longer alive, it will burden you with Inheritance Tax. Those people who considered the entire Congress party as their ancestral property and handed it over to their children, now do not want Indians to pass on their property to their children,” he said, as ANI reported.
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Following the escalation of controversy surrounding his remarks, Sam Pitroda sought to clarify his stance, stating that he had merely cited the inheritance tax in the US as an illustrative example during a television conversation.
“Who said 55 per cent will be taken away? Who said something like this should be done in India? Why are the BJP and the media in panic? I mentioned US inheritance tax in the US only as an example in my normal conversation on TV. Can I not mention facts? I said these are the kinds of issues people will have to discuss and debate. This has nothing to do with the policy of any party including Congress,” Pitroda said in his post on X.
Meanwhile, the Congress party has officially distanced itself from Pitroda’s comments, saying that his remarks do not consistently represent the party’s views.
What did Sam Pitroda say?
Recently, Sam Pitroda stressed the importance of policies regarding wealth redistribution and discussed the concept of inheritance tax as practiced in America.
Pitroda was quoted as saying, “In America, there is an inheritance tax. If one has 100 million USD worth of wealth and when he dies he can only transfer probably 45 per cent to his children, 55 per cent is grabbed by the government. That’s an interesting law. It says you in your generation, made wealth and you are leaving now, you must leave your wealth for the public, not all of it, half of it, which to me sounds fair.”
He highlighted the contrast in India, stating, “In India, you don’t have that. If somebody is worth 10 billion and he dies, his children get 10 billion and the public gets nothing…So these are the kinds of issues people will have to debate and discuss. When we talk about redistributing wealth, we are talking about new policies and new programs that are in the interest of the people and not in the interest of the super-rich only.”
Pitroda clarified that the discussion of wealth distribution is purely a policy matter and expressed concern about Prime Minister Modi’s remarks regarding the Congress manifesto.
(With ANI Inputs)