- Saturday, May 04, 2024
The chief of Indian Overseas Congress denied the Indian ruling party’s accusations of his party planning to snatch people’s wealth and appease a particular community.
By: Twinkle Roy
The Indian opposition Congress’s pledge of “wealth redistribution” in its manifesto for the ongoing national elections has seen an ugly war of words erupting between it and prime minister Narendra Modi and his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Sam Pitroda, who leads Overseas Indian Congress that reaches out to the Indian diaspora and has several years of experience in the information technology sector, and has worked with a number of prime ministers from the Congress, faced a massive backlash for backing the idea of “inheritance tax” which is in practice in some states of the US.
Modi ripped into the Congress after Pitroda spoke about the tax saying the opposition party would snatch people’s wealth if it comes to power after this election. The former had also targeted the opposition party over its ‘wealth redistribution’ promise, accusing it of appeasing a particular community. Pitroda, 81, hit back at the PM over the claim of ‘politics of appeasement’, saying it was naive to think like that and he had “some concerns” about Modi’s brain.
Read: What is US inheritance tax that Sam Pitroda mentioned to trigger a row?
Speaking with Asian News International in an interview, Pitroda defended the Congress’s poll promise, saying the idea of redistribution of wealth was in the interest of the people and not the super-rich only.
“If one has $100 million worth of wealth and when he dies he can only transfer probably 45% to his children, 55% 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 said about the inheritance tax in some states in the US.
Read: Priyanka Gandhi Vadra lambasts Modi over ‘mangalsutra’ remarks
According to the veteran leader, the question of distribution of wealth was a “policy issue” and underscored the requirement for a “minimum wage” in the country.
“The Congress party would frame a policy through which the wealth distribution would be better. We don’t have a minimum wage (in India). If we come up with a minimum wage in the country saying you must pay so much money to the poor, that’s the distribution of wealth,” he said.
“Today, rich people don’t pay their peons, servants, and home help enough, but they spend that money on vacation in Dubai and London… When you talk about the distribution of wealth, it is not that you sit on a chair and say I have this much money, and I’ll be distributing it to everybody,” Pitroda added.
Indian home minister Amit Shah also targeted the Congress over Pitroda’s remarks and asked it to withdraw its financial survet promise made in the manifesto.
“The entire Congress has been exposed due to Sam Pitoda’s statement. When PM Modi raised the issue, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi went on the backfoot. I hope Congress will withdraw this thing from its manifesto,” Shah said.
Shehzad Poonawalla, a national spokesperson of the BJP, said the Congress wanted to “grab your hard-earned tax-paid resources”.
“Ironically, the Gandhis built a huge treasury for their own children and son-in-law, but they want to grab your hard-earned tax-paid resources,” he tweeted.
Pitroda said the US inheritance tax had nothing to do with the manifesto of the Congress. He asked why the BJP and the media, which he accused of misinterpreting his remarks, was in panic.
The Congress, however, distanced itself from Pitroda’s views saying they did not reflect its position.
“Sam Pitroda expresses his opinions freely on issues he feels strongly about. Surely, in a democracy, an individual is at liberty to discuss, express, and debate his personal views,” Jairam Ramesh, the party’s communications in-charge said.
