Amid the controversy over the reported remarks of its overseas chairman Sam Pitroda on “inheritance tax in US”, the Congress on Wednesday categorically said that his views do not reflect the position of the party.

The Congress also said that in a democracy, any individual can express his personal views.

In a post on ‘X’, Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh wrote, “Sam Pitroda has been a mentor, friend, philosopher, and guide to many across the world, including me. He has made numerous, enduring contributions to India’s developments. He is President of the Indian Overseas Congress.”

“Mr Pitroda expresses his opinions freely on issues he feels strongly about. Surely, in a democracy an individual is at liberty to discuss, express, and debate his personal views. This does not mean that Mr Pitroda’s views always reflect the position of the Indian National Congress. Many times they do not,” he said.

In a veiled attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Rajya Sabha MP said, “Sensationalising his (Pitroda’s)comments now and tearing them out of context are deliberate and desperate attempts at diverting attention away from Mr Narenda Modi’s malicious and mischievous election campaign; that is anchored only in lies and more lies.”

Pitroda, in an interview to a news agency, was quoted as saying, “In America, there is an inheritance tax. If one has USD 100 million 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 is 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.”

“In India, you do not 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. I do not know what the conclusion would be at the end of the day but when we talk about redistributing wealth, we are talking about new policies and programmes that are in the interest of the people and not in the interest of the super-rich only,” ANI quoted him as saying.

Meanwhile, Ptiroda said his statement was “twisted” to divert attention from the “lies” being spread by Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the Congress manifesto.

“It is unfortunate that what I said as an individual on inheritance tax in the US is twisted  by Godi media to divert attention from what lies the PM is spreading about the Congress manifesto. PM’s comments on Mangal Sutra and gold snatching is simply unreal,” he added on ‘X’.

He further said, “I mentioned US inheritance tax in the US only as an example in my normal conversation on TV. Can I not mention facts ? I said these are the kind of issues people will have to discuss and debate. This has nothing to do with the policy of any party, including the Congress.”

“Who said 55 per cent will be taken away? Who said something like this should be done in India? Why is the BJP and media in panic?,” he questioned.

Ramesh added that it was the BJP which had intended to introduce the inheritance tax.

“In fact, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi abolished Estate Duty in 1985. But it is the Modi Sarkar that has wanted to do so! Fact One: Jayant Sinha, then Minister of State for Finance, publicly stated that he wanted to introduce Inheritance Tax in 2014. Fact Two: In 2017, reports emerged that the Modi Sarkar was going to re-introduce inheritance tax. Fact Three: In 2018, the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley praised Inheritance Taxes for “spurring large endowments to hospitals, universities in the West”.

“Fact Four: News reports emerged that Modi Sarkar would introduce an Inheritance Tax in Union Budget 2019. Over to you Prime Minister Modi – what is your party’s stance on this issue? #ChuppiTodoPradhanMantriji,” he said in a series of posts on ‘X’.