Rajiv axed tax to keep Indira's wealth: Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday continued with his relentless attack on the Congress over wealth redistribution and alleged that former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had abolished the inheritance tax in 1985 after his mother Indira Gandhi's death, to save her wealth from going into government coffers.

- MORENA

"Listen with your ears wide open. When 'sister' Indira Gandhi passed away, there was a law by virtue of which half the portion of the inherited wealth would go to the government. There was a buzz then that Indiraji had willed her wealth to her son Rajiv. To save the inheritance from going to the government, Rajiv Gandhi abolished the tax," the prime minister said.

He further charged at a poll rally in Morena in Madhya Pradesh that after benefitting from the abolition of estate duty -- a levy imposed on inherited movable and immovable assets -- the Congress wants to bring it back. It is doing so after its four generations have reaped the benefit of the wealth passed on to them, he added.