BJP president Amit Shah on Friday accused the Congress of “indulging in family fiefdom since Independence” and said there was no place for merit in that party.
He claimed that only the Left parties and the BJP had “internal democracy”, while there was no such concept in any other party.
Referring to Jharkhand, Shah asked the gathering, “Who will run the party after Guruji (Jharkhand Mukti Morcha president Shibu Soren)? Does anyone have any confusion about it,” apparently hinting at JMM working president and Shibu’s son, Hemant Soren.
Similarly, he asked the gathering if they had any confusion about who would become the Congress president after Sonia Gandhi.
Shah said in the BJP, intra-party polls were held every three years and anyone could become its president as the person was not elected on the basis of which family he belonged to.
He said the top post in the saffron party was all about commitment and merit and on the basis of that, he, who was a booth-level president of the party years ago, had become its national president.
The BJP chief criticised the policies formulated soon after Independence, saying these were based on the policies of western countries and cited the example of Shyama Prasad Mukherjee resigning from the Jawaharlal Nehru Cabinet over differences as regards the policies.
Stating that several western countries had only one crop, while India had three, he wanted to know how could one follow the agriculture policies of the western countries in India.
Shah said there should be strong policies to build the nation.
Shah described Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a “forward-looking leader” and said he had earned laurels and respect for the country from all over the world.
“Because of his (Modi’s) initiatives, all the countries are now trying to build a good relation with India,” he added.
On the other hand, Shah said, during the 10-year rule of the UPA, people had to wait for days to hear prime minister Manmohan Singh speak.
The government had a vision for all the people of the country and not for some, Shah said.
