“India’s culture and tradition are not of America”: Shivraj Chouhan on Sam Pitroda’s remarks

Raisen (Madhya Pradesh) [India], April 27 (ANI): Madhya Pradesh’s former Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Friday took a jibe at Sam Pitroda, who heads the Congress’ overseas chapter over his remarks on inheritance tax and said that India’s culture, tradition, and moral values are not of America.

Addressing a public rally in Raisen, Shivraj Singh Chouhan slammed Sam Pitroda for comparing India with America and said, “In a country like America, there is a provision that after death, the government (US) takes away 55% of the property. However, Sam Pitroda, this is not America, it’s India. India’s culture, tradition, and moral values are not of America. India is India.”

Earlier, emphasising the need for policy toward wealth redistribution, Pitroda spoke about the concept of inheritance tax prevailing in America and said these are issues that will need to be discussed.

“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,” Pitroda had said.

“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,” he had further said.

Criticising Congress, Shivraj Singh Chouhan said, “Be it farmers or the poor people, they also save money so that after their death, they can give something to their children. But the Congress wants to end this tradition.”

Chouhan added further, “This inheritance tax was in imposition earlier as well, but due to people’s pressure, Congress abolished it… Maybe Rajiv Gandhi wanted to get the property of Indira Gandhi, and so he abolished it. The party has to make its intention clear before the nation. Congress is not on India’s path. It is on a dangerous path.”

In India, the concept of levying tax on inheritance does not exist as of now. In fact, the Inheritance or Estate Tax was abolished with effect from 1985.

Chouhan also slammed the Congress party for conducting caste-based census. “On one hand, they talk about imposing inheritance tax, on the other hand, they talk about caste-based census… In how many parts do you want to divide the nation and society?… There are dangerous intentions lying behind… and those intentions are dividing the country based on caste… The country will never accept this, the people of the nation will never accept this,” he said.