Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday launched a scathing attack on Congress after Sam Pitroda advocated for a US-style inheritance tax amid the ongoing debate over wealth redistribution. The comments have further fuelled an already-raging controversy over Rahul Gandhi’s promise to conduct a wealth survey if the Congress won the Lok Sabha election.

PM Modi was speaking at a public meeting in Chhattisgarh’s Surguja, where he alleged that the Congress wants to fill its own coffers by imposing ever higher taxes and not allowing people to pass on their hard-earned wealth to their children.

The Prime minister said the advisor (Sam Pitroda) of the prince and the royal family had said some time ago that more taxes should be imposed on the middle class.  He said the Congress party says that it will impose an inheritance tax, and it will also impose tax on the inheritance received from parents. PM Modi added the children will not get the wealth that their parents accumulate through their hard work, rather the Congress party will snatch it away from them.

PM Modi said Pitroda’s remarks have exposed the dangerous intentions of the Congress.  He took a veiled jibe at the Congress and said the party has only one mantra – to loot people zindagi ke sath bhi, zindagi ke baad bhi (in life and even after death).

 The prime minister did not take any names and targeted the Gandhi family and said, those people who considered the entire Congress party as their ancestral property and handed it over to their children, now do not want Indians to pass on their property to their younger generations.

Indian Overseas Congress chairman Sam Pitroda while talking to the media backed his party’s stand on redistribution of wealth and called for a policy for the same while citing the concept of inheritance tax prevailing in some American states.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday took a U-turn on his wealth survey remark and said he only wanted to find out the amount of injustice the nation was facing. Rahul Gandhi was addressing Congress’s Social Justice Conference at Delhi’s Jawahar Bhawan where he clarified that he has not said Congress will take action yet. He said   that he was just saying that they will find out how much injustice has been done.

Gandhi further added that everyone should look at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s reaction and said that the moment he said let’s test how much injustice has been done the BJP started saying that this is an attempt to break down the country. The former Congress chief said through the X-ray (wealth survey), the Congress will get to know the root cause of problem.

Gandhi said it is his life’s mission to ensure justice for the 90 % of the population against whom injustice has been done. He alleged Injustice is being done to 90 percent of Indians and the moment he called for checking this injustice, PM Modi and the BJP started attacking him. Gandhi further added that as soon as the INDIA Bloc will form its government the first thing that would be done is caste census.

On April 7, Rahul Gandhi said Congress, if voted to power, would conduct a financial and institutional survey to ascertain the distribution of wealth among the people in the country. Rahul Gandhi was addressing a public rally in Hyderabad after releasing the Congress’s manifesto where he said the survey will be conducted apart from a nationwide caste census that the party has promised if voted to power.

The former Congress chief also spoke about the Ram Mandir inauguration, and said, not a single Dalit, or a tribal was seen at the temple, or during the inauguration of the new Parliament building. He said 90% of the population understands this.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi slammed the Congress party for declining to attend the pran pratishtha ritual at the Ayodhya Ram temple on January 22 this year.

The prime minister said Congress leaders consider themselves above Lord Ram and denied invitation for Pran Pratishtha at Ram Temple, while speaking at a rally in Janjgir-Champa, Chhattisgarh. The PM question the people present at the rally that is it not a disrespect of Mata Shabri? Congress leaders inclination toward appeasement politics runs in their family.

For political appeasement, they won’t think twice about stealing the rights of Adivasis, the poor, and Dalits. Poor, young, and women are BJP’s top priorities, Modi said.

PM Modi criticized the Congress again during the rally for claiming that the BJP would alter the constitution.

The leaders of Congress recite the same old phrases whenever an election is about to happen, the PM said. He also said they claim that if the BJP wins power, it will renounce the constitution and abolish reservations. For how long will you continue selling lies?” he asked.

The prime minister continued saying that nobody can change the Constitution, even if Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar were to come and insist on it, it wouldn’t happen.

Those in the Congress threaten to break Modi’s head. Nobody can harm Modi as long as the mothers and sisters of this county stands by him. These mothers and sisters are Raksha Kavach, Modi remarked.

The prime minister further attacked the Congress after Viriato Fernandes, the party’s candidate for South Goa, asserted that Goa was forced to adopt the Indian Constitution.

Referring to his conversation with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Fernandes said he had told him, when Goa was liberated in the year 1961, the Indian Constitution was forced upon us.

The prime minister said, Congress candidate from Goa says Constitution was forced upon Goans; is this not an insult of Ambedkar and Constitution.