Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Thursday hit back at Prime Minister Narendra over his statement on former PM Rajiv Gandhi, saying her father inherited not wealth but "martyrdom" from his mother, former prime minister Indira Gandhi. Her comments came days after PM had alleged that Rajiv Gandhi abolished inheritance tax after coming to power so that the wealth he had inherited from his mother would not be taxed.
While addressing a poll rally in Madhya Pradesh's Morena, she said, "My father did not inherit wealth, he inherited martyrdom from his mother."
At a rally in Morena last week, PM Modi had said that earlier, half of a deceased person's wealth went to the government by law.
"There was talk then that Indira ji had willed her wealth in her son Rajiv Gandhi's name. To save the money going to the government (after her death), then PM Rajiv Gandhi abolished the inheritance tax," he said. However, Congress had refuted the claim.
Priyanka, meanwhile, dared PM Modi to construct shelters for stray cattle in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.
"PM Narendra Modi has said today, beware, if you have two buffaloes, the Congress will steal one of them," she said, referring to PM Modi's pitch that the opposition party was planning to reintroduce inheritance tax and take away people's property.
"I throw a challenge to Modi ji; collect stray cattle in UP and MP, and put them in `gaushala' (cow shelters)," the Congress leader said.
"Solve the problem of stray cattle. Build cowsheds, strengthen them, like the previous Congress government in Chhattisgarh did," she added.
The gaushalas in Chhattisgarh provided women with income, and the government also bought cow dung from them, Gandhi said.
Unemployment rate in the country was at a 45-year high and government recruitment examinations were being hit by paper leaks while the Modi government was also closing available employment avenues, the Congress leader claimed.
(With PTI inputs)
