My father didn’t inherit wealth but martyrdom from Indira Gandhi: Priyanka

Priyanka Vadra defends her father Rajiv Gandhi against Modi's allegations, highlighting the inheritance of martyrdom, not wealth.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not be able to understand that her father and former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi did not inherit the wealth but the feeling of martyrdom from her mother and former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, Congress general secretary Priyanka Vadra said in Madhya Pradesh’s Morena on Thursday, in the midst of Lok Sabha elections. 

“How do I explain [to myself] when Modi ji calls my father a traitor from stage, when Modi ji says that my father changed some law to get the inheritance from her mother? Modi ji will not understand that my father did not get money and wealth but shahadat ki bhavna [feeling of martyrdom] as inheritance. You can understand this as you have sent your sons to the border and they attain martyrdom for this country,” Ms. Vadra said as she responded to Mr. Modi’s allegations that Rajiv Gandhi had axed the inheritance law when he became Prime Minister to “avoid paying tax on the wealth he inherited from his mother”.

Ms. Vadra was addressing an election rally in Morena, part of the State’s Gwalior-Chambal region that sees many youth joining the forces. 

The Prime Minister had also made his remarks about Rajiv Gandhi at a rally in Morena on April 25. 

“When former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi died, her children were going to get her property. But there was a rule earlier, that before the property goes to the children some part of it was taken by the government. Congress had formulated a law on this. To save the property so that it does not go to the government, the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi scrapped the inheritance law. After accumulating wealth over four generations, now they want to loot your wealth,” Mr. Modi had said. 

Ms. Vadra said she was angry with the country when she, at the age of 19, brought the mortal remains of her father. “I was feeling that I had sent my father safely to you [the nation] and you sent him back in pieces wrapped in the national flag,” she said, adding that she understood what martyrdom meant.

“I am 52 today and have said this thing on stage for the first time,” said Ms. Vadra, adding that she eventually realised that this kind of anger was only towards those you love.