You have certainly every right to talk about socialism, but I can also share something with you. What is capital gain? Capital gain is unearned income and it is the fundamental policy of any socialist country, or any government, which has to consider the well-being of the people and which is against concentration of wealth in a few hands, to see that no concessions are given in the case of capital gains. If you do not accept this basic thing, what is the point in telling me that he has given cogent reasons? Capitalists argue their case in a much more sophisticated manner and cogent manner. Cogent argument is not necessarily a convincing or valid argument. Capital gains is something unsocial in a sense; it is an unearned income and any concession to the unearned income must never be accepted, and, therefore, this was an essential point for us. We have many differences with you on many aspects of the budget, but we have not made every issue an issue to argue with you; we have chosen only three or four issues, selective issues. First is the capital gains tax; I have given our major argument about it. Second is the closely held companies. The hon. Minister was taking advantage of the Wanchoo commission and was arguing cogently about the capital gains tax. On the basis of the Wanchoo Commission, we had taken certain steps; I was instrumental in taking those steps. He uses the same Wanchoo Commission when it suits him and he rejects it where it does not suit him. Is it a cogent reason for this matter?
Let us come to the closely held companies. What are those companies? These are family concerns. I do not want to name these. It would be giving them unnecessary advertisement. In giving these concession to these companies, we feel that we will be making a mistake. The hon. Minister says that there is no possibility of speculation; he also argued about possibilities of better investment and productive investment. These are the things which are normally branded about to justify anything that one does about the taxation. This is the simplest thing that anybody can say that this is something for proper investment for productive purposes. I would say that any concession given to the closely held companies indicates definitely - let me make the charge, I am not making this charge against any individual, I am making a charge against the party - and brings out the characteristics of your party consists of progressive elements and other types of elements, it is the domination of reactionary elements. .... (Interruptions)...
....These are the two things which indicate what type of philosophy, what type of political ideology, what type of political programme, and what type of economic policy this party tries to follow. If you think it is a charge, it is a charge and if you do not think so, it is not a charge, but according to me this is the correct appreciation of your party’s characteristics.
Now, I come to the sick industrial units. I would personally like to say more about it because I have got a little more experience about it as I was one of the Chief Minister in this country who started treating this sick industry in Bombay as early as 1957, nearly 20 years ago. He says, “This is because of your wrong policy. I would like to ask what those wrong policies were. In the industries, particularly, the textile and jute industries, the machinery was not properly maintained by the industrialists. There was no proper investment made at proper time on them. They have taken advantage of the speculation in the raw material that is used in this industry. Therefore, all the profits that could be taken out of it, were completely taken out of it. It was exhausted completely when it became sick. They said that they wanted to close it down... (Interruptions). The main point is that this was not as a result of our government’s policy. It was the result of policies, tendency and mentality of the private ownership. These are the typical results of private ownership. They want to take as much profits out of it and kill the cow or the buffalo that gives the milk and the result was that hundreds and thousands of workers were thrown on the streets. At that time there was an opportunity....
Shri Dinen Bhattacharya : It started from your time.
