BHOPAL: Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Thursday hit back at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent inheritance tax jibe aimed at her father and former PM Rajiv Gandhi, asserting, “It was not wealth, but the spirit of shahadat (martyrdom), which my father inherited from his mother."
At a poll rally in Madhya Pradesh's Morena, the Congress leader fired back at the Prime Minister while campaigning for party candidate Nitu Sikarwar.
"PM accused my father of being a traitor and having scrapped a law just to inherit his mother’s wealth. But not PM Modi, only you all present here who sent their children to guard the country’s borders can understand that my father (Rajiv Gandhi) didn’t inherit money and wealth from his mother (Indira Gandhi). He inherited the spirit of martyrdom,” she said.
Priyanka emotionally recounted the 1991 assassination of her father, adding that Modi will not understand the sacrifices made by her family.
"I was only 19 years old when I brought home pieces of my father’s body draped in the national tricolour. I was angry at the country then for not having saved my father, who sacrificed his life for the country," she said.
"Now, I’m 52 and stating this fact publicly for the first time. But slowly, I realised that one only gets angry with someone he or she loves. How can I narrate how much we love our country when PM Modi terms by father a deshdrohi (traitor) on the public stage?" the Congress leader continued.
Last week, while addressing a rally in Morena, Modi had accused Rajiv of abolishing inheritance tax after coming to power to avoid taxation on the wealth inherited from his mother, Indira Gandhi.
"Listen with your ears wide open about the sins the Congress has committed. I want to put forth an interesting fact. When sister Indira Gandhi passed away, there was a law by virtue of which half of the wealth used to go to the government. There were talks then that Indiraji willed her wealth in her son Rajiv Gandhi's name," Modi had told the gathering.
"To save the money going to the government, the then-PM Rajiv Gandhi abolished the inheritance tax," the prime minister had claimed, as he tried to double down on his wealth redistribution and inheritance tax charge at the Congress.
Immediately responding to Modi's remarks against Rajiv Gandhi, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh had said that "every time he opens his mouth to speak, the prime minister provides fresh evidence of his meanness, pettiness, and his steadfast adherence to lies."
Meanwhile, during Thursday's poll campaign, Priyanka escalated her criticism of the prime minister, claiming that Modi can only discuss dynastic politics and not their patriotic spirit, which she insisted "can never be erased from our hearts."
"When Modiji utters nonsense about a woman like Indiraji, when Modiji, after seeing this feeling of patriotism, only sees dynastic politics, he cannot understand this sacrifice," Priyanka said in a voice choked with emotion.
"Let him call us traitors, evict us from houses, and burden us with cases. He got my brother ousted from Parliament, burdening him with so many cases and forcing him to move from one state to another to face court trials in those cases. Let him (Modi) do whatever he wants to do with us, even kill us, but the spirit of patriotism can never be erased from our hearts," the Congress leader added.
While maintaining that the preaching of Hinduism formed the basis of Mahatma Gandhi’s movement against British rule and also the foundation of the Congress, Priyanka lashed out at the BJP and accused the saffron party of using religion to "hide their non-performance" on public issues.
"We are all religious. My grandmother, Indira Gandhi, taught me how to perform puja and I accompanied my father (Rajiv Gandhi) to the temples. My mother, who hails from abroad, learned Indian traditions in this country and has taught me about Hinduism. It is all about truth and the eternal spirit of Satyamev Jayate. But those in power today raise emotive issues of religion at the time of polls to hide their non-performance on public issues," the Congress leader said.
