Hitting out at Congress and other Opposition parties, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday termed dynastic politics as “poison”, asserting that under such a system power remains concentrated in the “hands of one family”.
Shah accused the Congress, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) of indulging in dynastic politics.
“I don’t want to name any leader, but the dynastic politics of Congress, DMK, Shiv Sena (UBT) means the members of only one family will come in the party and the government. This is what dynastic politics is called,” Shah told reporters in Bhopal during his day-long visit to the state, during which he released the Madhya Pradesh government’s ‘report card’ from 2003-2023.
Shah said, “I don’t want to name any leader, but the dynastic politics of Congress, DMK, Shiv Sena (UBT) means the members of only one family will come in the party and the government. This is what dynastic politics is called.”
Defending the distribution of tickets to family members of leaders in BJP, Shah said, “Somewhere a few were given tickets on the basis of merit. Don’t dilute the issue of dynastic politics by saying this…This is poison. When parties become the property of a family, then what will be the place for those who come from the ground level?”
Former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, PM Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh did not have any political family background, he said.
“I became the president of the party, no one in my family was in politics. (BJP chief J P) Nadda ji’s family has no political background. What is the background of Shivraj ji (MP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan)? Don’t create a fuss by playing around with the Congress agenda. In dynastic politics, the ownership of power remains in the hands of one family,” Shah added.
When asked if Shivraj Singh Chouhan will continue to remain as the CM, Shah said, “Why are you doing the party’s work? Our party will do its own work. Shivraj ji is CM and we are in the election…Take the development works of Modi ji (PM Modi) and Shivraj ji to the public. Also highlight if Congress did any development.”
The union home minister also said that Madhya Pradesh had undergone a golden period of poverty alleviation under the BJP government and has shed its “BIMARU” tag, reported The Indian Express.
The BIMARU acronym has often been used to refer to Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, usually to imply that these states lagged in terms of economic growth, healthcare, education, and other indices.
“In the last 20 years (2003-2023), the BJP government in the state has salvaged Madhya Pradesh from this stigma, and this period has become a golden period of poverty alleviation. In these years, the BJP government has liberated the state from poverty and laid the foundation for its emergence as a developed, atma nirbhar (self-reliant) state during Amrit Kaal,” he said.
He further said that 10 per cent of India’s population was lifted out of poverty in nearly 10 years of PM Modi’s governance.
Shah had also addressed the BJP’s state executive committee in Gwalior and urged party workers to resolve to help the BJP win more than 150 seats in the coming Assembly election, which is scheduled in November this year.