'Inheritance tax' remark made to divert attention from Cong's 'garibi hatao' campaign: Mayawati

Lucknow: BSP president Mayawati on Thursday seized on Congress leader Sam Pitroda's "inheritance tax" remark, saying it has got less to do with the welfare of the poor and more with diverting attention from the failure of the Congress' 'garibi hatao' campaign.

In a post on X, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader asserted that it is difficult for the Congress to get rid of its "tainted legacy".

"Senior Congress leaders' advocacy of 'inheritance tax' on private property, like in the US, under the guise of redistribution of wealth in India seems less for the welfare of the poor and more a politically motivated electoral effort to divert people's attention from the well-known failure of their 'garibi hatao' campaign," Mayawati said.

1. कांग्रेस के वरिष्ठ नेताओं द्वारा भारत में धन के वितरण की आड़ में, अमेरिका की तरह, निजी सम्पत्ति पर ’विरासत टैक्स’ की सोच व उसकी पैरवी गरीबों की भलाई का कम व राजनीति से प्रेरित इनकी ’गरीबी हटाओ’ की चर्चित विफलता पर से लोगों का ध्यान बांटने का चुनावी प्रयास ज्यादा लगता है। 1/2

— Mayawati (@Mayawati) April 25, 2024

"As far as the question of justice for Dalits and deprived people in matters related to distribution of property and government land is concerned, because of the lack of right intentions of these governments, poverty, backwardness, compulsion to migrate could not be eradicated," she added.

"It is difficult for the Congress to get rid of such a tainted legacy," she asserted.

A political row had erupted after Pitroda, the president of the Indian Overseas Congress, talked about the inheritance tax law in the United States and referred to the "redistribution of wealth" issue.

The Congress distanced itself from Pitroda's remark, saying its sensationalisation was an attempt at diverting attention from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "malicious" poll campaign.

Modi, however, seized the opportunity to step up the ruling BJP's blistering attack on the Congress on the issue of "wealth redistribution." In his poll rallies, Modi framed Pitroda's comments in his wider onslaught against the Congress, asserting that they have exposed its hidden agenda and that the party has become so removed from the country's social and family values that it wants to legally rob people of their assets and lifelong savings they want to bequeath to their children.