BJP President Nitin Gadkari today dubbed the Congress as a “mother and son party”, where the post of party chief is reserved only for a member of the Gandhi family.
Addressing a public rally organised by the BJP on completion of 1,000 days in office of its first government in the south, Gadkari said Congress was not a public limited company or even a private limited company, but a “family concern”.
He said the post of Congress president is reserved only for the Gandhi family. “Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi... Gandhi, Gandhi, Gandhi... One after another...,” he said. “Manmohan Singhji, Chidambaramji, Pranab Mukherjeeji... they can dream of becoming Prime Minister, if they want (in case of the last two) but can never dream of becoming party president,” Gadkari said.
He dubbed Congress as a “mother-and-son party” (referring to Sonia Gandhi and Rahul) and JD(S) as a “father-and-son party” (referring to JD-S national chief H D Deve Gowda, and H D Kumaraswamy, who heads the state unit). In contrast, he said the BJP is a democratic party, an outfit belonging to the workers.
Citing his own example, Gadkari said he once used to paste BJP posters and deliver voter slips from house to house. “A common worker like me can become president of the party. This proves BJP is a party of workers,” he said.
Gadkari taunts PM Gadkari also taunted Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for his remark he was not as big a culprit as being made out to be and asked him how much “percentage of culprit are you?”
“I ask the Prime Minister: How much percentage of culprit are you,” Gadkari said at a BJP rally referring to Singh’s comment at his interaction with editors of TV channels last week. Gadkari also accused the Congress of shying away from taking action on black money stashed in foreign banks for fear that it would “blacken the faces” of its leaders.
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He said when the Supreme Court had asked the Government why it was not disclosing names of people having such accounts, it was told any such move “is not in the interest of the nation.” He pointed out there is a United Nations resolution, allowing countries to get back such money stashed abroad, but that the UPA government had not ratified it.
“The Congress is not implementing it, because if they do, their leaders’ faces will get blackened; they would not be in a position to show their face,” he alleged. “After NDA comes to power in 2014, we will bring back this money,” he said, adding these funds would be used for the welfare of the poor, farmers and for road development and to link rivers Ganga and Cauvery to bring prosperity to the region.
Referring to Prime Minister’s remarks on compulsion of coalition governments, he accused Manmohan Singh of “outsourcing” a Department (Telecom) to an alliance partner. “Is it coalition dharma to encourage corruption and ‘adharma’,” he asked.
He charged Congress with indulging in ‘appeasing’ terrorism, noting that Afzal Guru, the main man behind the Parliament attack, was yet to be hanged even six years after his conviction by the Supreme Court.