Rahul Gandhi was rather pleased with himself on Tuesday. After Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday announced the rollback of a controversial proposal to tax the Employee Provident Fund, the Congress vice-president promptly took credit for the decision.
"I felt middle-class people were being hurt by the government, so I decided to put some pressure on the government...my pressure did work," Gandhi said. "Finally the government was forced to listen to people and roll back the patently unfair tax on EPF."
Outlining his third Budget on February 29, Jaitley had proposed that 60% of withdrawal from contribution to EPF – a retirement benefit scheme for salaried employees – made after April 1 would be subject to tax.
The move had caused confusion and drawn widespread criticism from trade unions, the salaried class and political parties. Rahul Gandhi had demanded that the proposal be scrapped and had said that he would and put pressure on the government which "works for a selected group of industrialists and those with black money."
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had then asked the Finance Ministry to defer the plan so that a detailed study on it could be conducted, a reason which Jaitley cited in Parliament on Tuesday.
Congress spokesperson Sanjay Jha tweeted that the Modi had "once again caved into pressure exerted by Rahul Gandhi, who was fighting for the common man".
Earlier in the day, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Subramaniam Swamy's appeared to have correctly predicted Gandhi's reaction to the rollback, referring to him by the unflattering name he has used in the past.
EPF levy is to be withdrawn on the insistence of Namo. But watch Buddhu--he will claim credit.
— Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) March 8, 2016
Rahul Gandhi's apparent attempt at political opportunism also got him mocked on social media. Here's a selection:
Rahul Gandhi : Tax on EPF is revoked because of me
— Intellectual Troll (@pahaadii) March 8, 2016
Modi : pic.twitter.com/FGTy07xHNx
'My pressure worked': RaGa claims credit for roll back of tax on EPFhttps://t.co/1Yr9ksZN2y via @timesofindia. pic.twitter.com/zg66W9wBS7
— Jaydev Shenoy H (@JaydevS05) March 8, 2016
Rahul Gandhi claiming credit for rollback of #EPF is comparable with Paris Hilton's claim of she inventing the term "That's Hot"
— Prakash R (@blindgaurdien16) March 8, 2016
We demand that EPF Tax withdrawal be named as Jawaharlal Indira Rajiv Robert Tax Exemption Yojana https://t.co/UdHiknImyz
— PhD from JNU (@PhD_from_JNU) March 8, 2016
#RahulGandhi: EPF Tax rolled back bcoz of ME. There r many such cases:
— @shish @rora (@ASShishism) March 8, 2016
- India got freedom bcoz of Charlie Chaplin
- Rome was built by DLF
How congress sees Rahul Gandhi after Arun Jaitley rolled back EPF TAX !! pic.twitter.com/QuzJtkcTPl
— Dhara (@simply_paradox) March 8, 2016
Rahul Gandhi taking credit for EPF Tax rollback is like a commentator taking credit for indian players winning the 2011 wc #facepalm
— Man of Justice (@SuperGops) March 8, 2016