💰💸Who wants to redistribute your wealth?
Congress, BJP, and the Supreme Court are engaged in debates at different levels regarding the delineation of boundaries concerning private property, wealth, inheritance, and the common good.
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Who wants to redistribute your wealth?
From Rahul Gandhi’s mentor Sam Pitroda pitching a US-like inheritance tax model in India to Supreme Court hearing arguments on whether or not private properties can be considered a community resource, we have got you all covered on the debate around wealth re-distribution in the middle of general elections in India.
Focus on redistribution: It all started with Rahul Gandhi’s ‘take from the rich and give to the poor’ proposal where he pitched to undertake a financial and institutional survey to redistribute wealth fairly across various communities. His video of carrying out a caste census to redistribute wealth to Backward Classes Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Dalits, Adivasis and poor people made headlines.
The shift: Then Prime Minister Narendra Modi upped the ante and claimed that if Congress is voted back to power, it would not even spare the “mangalsutra” of women and would redistribute the wealth to Muslims and infiltrators. There were complaints filed with the Election Commission over the speech and the debate was largely over whether or not this should be regarded as ‘hate speech’. This helped Congress shift the focus away from answering uncomfortable questions on the wealth redistribution agenda.
Reversal of fortunes: Today, Rahul Gandhi’s mentor Sam Pitroda when asked about Congress’ wealth redistribution agenda, went on to reaffirm the party’s commitment to the cause. He supported the introduction of the US-like inheritance tax in India, where he claimed that the government gets 55% of wealth upon an individual's death.
Fact-checking Sam Pitroda: There is no federal inheritance tax in the United States. Currently, only 6 states have inheritance tax ranging from 1% to 20%. On the other hand, an estate tax is imposed by the federal government on inherited properties and it ranges from 18% and 40%.
Damage control: Despite Congress issuing numerous clarifications distancing themselves from Sam Pitroda’s statement, the damage was done. The Prime Minister wasted no time in slamming the Congress for the proposal. He used a spin on LIC’s famous tagline ‘Zindagi ke saath bhi, Zindagi ke baad bhi’ to say “Congress ki loot, zindagi ke saath bhi, zindagi ke baad bhi”.
Role reversals: The proposal shocks many because it was Rajiv Gandhi’s government which abolished the inheritance tax in India in 1985. For a while in 2014, BJP was also toying with the idea of reimposing inheritance tax but it was nipped in the bud by then Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
But wait… it’s not just a political issue. A nine-judge Supreme Court bench is parallelly examining whether private property can fall under Article 39(b) to be distributed for the common good. This judgement will have implications for private property rights and the broader concept of community resources
This case involves a long-standing dispute where private landowners in Mumbai resisted the state government's attempts to take over dilapidated properties for restoration purposes.
The bench is currently examining whether privately owned resources fall under the category of 'material resources of the community' to be distributed for the common good as outlined in Article 39(b) of the Constitution.
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