From ‘hua to hua’ on anti-Sikh riots to inheritance tax: Sam Pitroda drags Congress into another row

A close confidant of the Nehru-Gandhi family and a Rajiv Gandhi aide, Sam Pitroda, who now heads the Indian Overseas Congress, has once again put the party in a fix just before the Lok Sabha polls, with his statement on Wednesday describing an inheritance tax along the lines of the United States law as an “interesting” provision.

Based in Chicago, the 81-year-old Pitroda, who describes himself as a “telecom inventor, entrepreneur, development thinker and policy maker” on his website, served as an adviser to Rajiv Gandhi when he was the Prime Minister.

In 1989, he became the first chairman of the Telecom Commission and also headed the National Knowledge Commission from 2005 to 2009 under PM Manmohan Singh. In 2009, he was appointed as an adviser to the PM on public information infrastructure with the rank of a Cabinet minister. Pitroda also organises Congress MP Rahul Gandhi’s international speaking events, among other engagements.

However, the Congress’s go-to man in technological matters has made multiple statements in the past that have hurt the party. Like this time, the party has had to dissociate itself from his earlier statements too.

On Wednesday, he commented on American inheritance laws in an interview with ANI. “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,” Pitroda said. However, only some US states levy an inheritance tax up to 20%.

The remarks by Pitroda came when the Congress was already on the back foot over the issue, with PM Narendra Modi claiming that the Congress manifesto showed it intended to redistribute the nation’s wealth. (The Congress has refuted this and said the party would approach