NEW DELHI, June 26: About two months after stepping down after creating political stirs with his comments during the Lok Sabha elections, the Congress on Wednesday re-appointed Sam Pitroda as the chairman of the Indian Overseas Congress.
Mr Pitroda had resigned from the post after two of his remarks stirred up a huge political row, putting the Congress on the backfoot during the all-important Lok Sabha elections. His reappointment was announced by the party in a statement on Wednesday.
Towards the end of April, when the first phase of the elections was over and the Congress was fending off a BJP charge led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, that its manifesto had spoken of redistributing the wealth of people to Muslims, Mr Pitroda had added fuel to the fire by speaking about an inheritance tax prevailing in the country he stay, the United States.
Criticising the Prime Minister for claiming that the party’s manifesto spoke of snatching gold and women’s mangalsutras (a sacred ornament in Hinduism symbolising that a woman is married), Mr Pitroda had talked about the inheritance tax.
“In America, there is an inheritance tax. If one has $100 million 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 had said.
The BJP latched on to this statement and claimed that the Congress’ hidden designs had been exposed. Addressing rallies, PM Modi had said, “The advisor of the prince of the Congress royal family had earlier said that the middle class should be taxed more. Now they have gone further ahead. Now the Congress is saying that it will impose an Inheritance Tax and tax the inheritance received by people from their parents. The wealth you accumulate with your hard work won’t pass down to your children. The Congress’s hand will snatch it.”
Meanwhile, an MP-MLA court in Uttar Pradesh’s Sultanpur on Wednesday issued an order asking the Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to personally appear before it on July 2 in a defamation case for his alleged objectionable remarks against Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
A defamation case was filed against Mr Gandhi in 2018 over his alleged objectionable remarks against Amit Shah. The defamation complaint against Mr Gandhi was filed by BJP leader Vijay Mishra. Mr Gandhi had halted his “Bharat Jodo Nyaya Yatra” in Amethi on February 20 this year and appeared in court, which had granted him bail.
(Manas Dasgupta)
