Pitroda's inheritance tax remarks fuel fresh attack

Ambikapur/New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday seized on Congress leader Sam Pitroda's remarks on inheritance tax to step up the ruling BJP's blistering attack on the issue of "wealth redistribution", saying "zindagi ke saath bhi, zindagi ke baad bhi" is the opposition party's mantra to "loot" people.

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.

At an election rally in Chhattisgarh's Ambikapur, Modi said the dangerous intentions of the Congress are coming to the fore one by one and now "it says it will impose inheritance tax". "The advisor of 'shehzada' of the 'shahi parivar', who was also the advisor to the shehzada's father, said that more tax should be imposed on the middle class and those who earn by toiling hard," Modi said, apparently referring to Rahul Gandhi and Pitroda. The Congress will impose a tax on the assets inherited by people from their parents, he said, claiming that the "panja" (Congress' poll symbol) will snatch the assets from their children.

“Congress ka mantra hei Congress ki loot ‘zindagi ke saath bhi, zindagi ke baad bhi’ (Congress’ mantra is looting people when they are alive and afterwards too),” he said improvising on the iconic tagline of state-run Life Insurance Corporation (LIC). “Till you are alive, the Congress will impose more tax and after your life ends, it will impose the burden of inheritance tax on you. They (Congress) want to snatch your assets and rights of your children,” the prime minister alleged.