Prime Minister Narendra Modi chose his address to BJP workers and leaders on the party's foundation day to assert that dynastic parties were the "biggest enemies" of democracy and that the BJP, in marked contrast, stood for devotion to the country rather than a family.
This is the second time he has, in this Parliament session, hit out at dynastic politics in his speeches to partymen. A few weeks ago, right after the results for five Assembly polls were declared, he said the same in his address to the BJP parliamentary party.
"Dynastic parties are dedicated to further family rule and have little regard for constitutional norms, and cover up corruption and misdeeds of each other even though they may be active in different States," he said.
In a reference to geopolitical developments following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, he pointed out that India was acting by keeping its national interest supreme when the world was divided in two opposing poles.
‘Families dominate’
Targeting political rivals, he observed that when these parties active nationally or in States come to power, members of some families dominate from local bodies to Parliament. Only the BJP has challenged them and made it an electoral issue. They did not allow the country's young talent to come up and betrayed them, he said, without naming any party. He noted that BJP governments had run welfare schemes without any discrimination and worked to take them to every beneficiary, while previous dispensations were driven by vote-bank politics in which some sections of society were made promises while larger sections ignored.
BJP Leaders Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Kiren Rijeju and other BJP MPs listening to the speech by PM Narendra Modi during the BJP’s Foundation Day Celebration at the Parliament Annexe in New Delhi on Wednesday. | Photo Credit: R.V. MOORTHY
The BJP succeeded in convincing people of the dangers of such an approach, he stressed. Discrimination and corruption were "side effects" of vote-bank politics, he remarked. The government machinery now worked to reach every intended beneficiary as part of its resolve for saturation coverage of welfare programmes.
Any discrimination cannot stay in such a mechanism, he said, asserting these measures were the biggest instrument of social justice. For the BJP, he said, "rajniti" (politics) and "rashtra niti" (policies for country's welfare) cannot be separate.
New opportunities
The ongoing programmes to mark the 75th anniversary of Independence and the "rapidly changing" global order that has presented the country with new opportunities made the ruling party's foundation day "very important", he claimed and cited the BJP's poll success in retaining power in four States as another key marker along with it becoming the first party in three decades to have 100 members in the Rajya Sabha.
Mr. Modi asserted that India was working by keeping its national interest supreme. It was unflinching about its welfare. It was globally being seen as a country that spoke firmly about humanity. It now had convergence of policies, intentions, decisiveness and determination, he added.
