Sam Pitroda has been reappointed as president of the Indian Overseas Congress after he resigned after two of his remarks sparked a major political row and left the Congress in a corner during the crucial Lok Sabha elections.
The reappointment was announced by the party in a statement on Wednesday.
Towards the end of April, when the first phase of elections was over and the Congress had to fend off a charge from Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the party manifesto talked about redistributing the people's wealth among Muslims, Pitroda added fuel to the fire by to talk about an inheritance tax.
Mr Pitroda criticized the Prime Minister for claiming that the party manifesto talked about stealing gold and mangalsutras for women (a sacred ornament in Hinduism that symbolizes a woman being married). In a conversation with ANI, he eventually talked about inheritance tax.
'There is an inheritance tax in America. If a person has a hundred million dollars in wealth and when he dies, he can probably only pass on 45 percent to his children; 55 percent is seized by the government. That's an interesting law. You in your generation have acquired wealth and you are now leaving. You should leave your wealth to the public, not all of it, but half of it, which sounds fair to me,” he had said.
The BJP stood by this statement and claimed that the hidden plans of the Congress had been exposed.
At a rally, PM Modi had said, “The advisor to the prince of the Congress royal family had earlier said that the middle class should be taxed more. Now they have gone further. Now the Congress is saying that it will impose an inheritance tax and tax the inheritance that people receive from their parents. The wealth that you accumulate through your hard work will not be passed on to your children. The hand of the Congress will grab it.”