New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his Independence Day speech on Thursday appealed to the nation to not look at every wealth creator from the prism of suspicion. He added that they have an important place in the economic setup of the country as they provide the wealth that eventually gets distributed among the poor.
“Never see wealth creators with suspicion. Because if wealth is not created, how will it be distributed. And if it is not distributed how will it benefit the poor in the country,” said PM Modi during his speech the Red Fort.
Modi’s appeal was a reply of sorts to the row over tax terrorism. The debate sparked off when Cafe Coffee Day owner, VG Siddhartha, in his last letter before he went missing, alleged harassment by the previous DG, Income Tax.
“There was a lot of harassment from the previous DG income tax attaching our shares on two separate occasions to block our Mindtree deal and then taking position of our Cafe Coffee Day shares, although the revised returns have been filed by us. This is very unfair and has led to serious liquidity crunch,” the letter read.
The very next day, Member of Parliament, Manish Tiwari, had given an adjournment notice in the Lok Sabha on the harassment by I-T officials, which according to him, led to the death of Siddhartha.
Supreme Court advocate and national spokesperson of Congress, Brijesh Kalappa had tweeted saying, “VG Siddhartha Hegde, Founder of Cafe Coffee Day, home grown entrepreneur who gave 50,000 people a livelihood is no more. He was killed mercilessly by Tax Terrorists who are now seeking to besmirch his memory by selectively leaking material against him.”
Kalappa’s tweet was followed by the Karnataka Congress condemning taxmen as well. “VG Siddhartha case is very unfortunate. Result of harassment by IT officials & decline of India’s entrepreneurial position turning virulent by the day, with Tax Terror & collapse of economy… Companies which flourished under UPA have been shut down with many people being jobless."
Seconding the same debate, Biocon CMD Kiran Majumdar Shaw in an interview with News18 had said, “India has moved from License Raj to Inspector Raj. There is an effort to clean India Inc but the pendulum cannot swing from one extreme to the other. The government needs to exchange with honest businessmen.”
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