Appreciating PM's I-Day speech, Chidambaram taunts Sitharaman

While appreciating three of Prime Minister's announcements on Independence Day, senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Friday taunted Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman over Narendra Modi's exhortation of respecting wealth creators.

"All of us must welcome three announcements made by the PM on I-Day -- Small family is a patriotic duty, respect wealth creators and shun single-use plastic," Chidambaram wrote on Twitter, referring to Modi's 92-minute address from the Red Fort.

However, in his second tweet, he took a jibe at the Finance Minister and wrote, "I hope the FM and her legion of tax officials and investigators heard the PM's second exhortation loud and clear".

The former home minister added that the first and third exhortations by Modi must become people's movements.

"The first and third exhortations must become people's movements. There are hundreds of dedicated voluntary organisations that are willing to lead the movements at local levels," read his third tweet.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Modi had said that wealth creation is a national service and that wealth creator should not be eyed with suspicion. "Wealth creation is a great national service. Let us never see wealth creators with suspicion. Only when wealth is created, wealth will be distributed. Wealth creation is absolutely essential. Those who create wealth are India's wealth and we respect them."

Chidambaram's response came weeks after the death of VG Siddhartha, founder of popular chain Cafe Coffee Day. In a purported suicide note, he had mentioned "harassment" from a senior income tax officer.

"There was a lot of harassment from the previous DG income tax in the form of attaching our shares on two separate occasions..." VG Siddhartha said in the letter on the day he went missing from a bridge near Mangaluru in Karnataka.

In West Bengal, Trinamool Congress had also hit out at Income Tax officials for asking Durgo Pujo Committees to pay taxes.