Congress a patriarchal party, charges Shah

Lalit Mohan

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, May 4

National BJP president Amit Shah today said the Congress was a patriarchal party. There were just two parties in the country, the BJP and the Communist party that have internal democracy. “Can anybody tell who would be the next president of BJP, but everybody can tell who would succeed Sonia Gandhi as Congress president,” said Shah.

Shah further said that it was only BJP which can make a tea vendor Prime Minister of the country. The party had thousands of workers who have no families and have dedicated their lives for the organization and the country. The political parties that are not themselves democratic cannot strengthen the democracy in the country. “In BJP we think about the next generation of the country while the other parties think about their own next generation”, the BJP national president said.

He was addressing a meeting of intellectuals from across the state, who came to meet him at the conclave today.

Shah said the Congress was not a party but a special purpose vehicle (SPV) before independence. People from different ideologies joined the Congress for the freedom of country. However, after independence the SPV had lost its relevance and became a political party. Leaders like Shyama Prashad Mukherjee left Congress due to ideological differences. The leaders in Congress at that time were not corrupt. However, the Congress was moving towards the policies of western countries. The Congress wanted reconstruction of India after totally dismantling the old whereas leaders like Shyama Prashad Mukherjee, who founded Jan Sangh, wanted Indian culture and civilization as base of development of the country, he said.

Amit Shah said that people of the country should compare the performance of the BJP governments in various states and governments of other parties. West Bengal, Bihar and UP had sick state stigma under governments of other parties. Bihar also came out of sick state stigma when the BJP came in power in the state in coalition, he said.

He said the BJP had started with just five permanent workers but now had 11 crore workers across the country, 1,387 MLAs and 325 MPs in Parliament. The BJP had its government in 14 states and consecutive victories of the party in different parts of the country illustrate that the policies of the party were being accepted by the people.

He also praised the working of the Narendra Modi government and said that just by transferring the subsidy of LPG cylinders online union government had saved Rs 14,000 crores. Accepting the appeal of the Prime Minister 1.25 crore people in the country had given up LPG subsidy. The benefits of money saved were passed by the government to the poor of the country. Two crore new LPG connections have been given to the poor women across the country. Besides, 7 crore new toilets have been built for the poor, he said.

During the conclave of intellectuals Amit Shah also honoured N K Kalia father of Kargil martyr from Palampur, Saurabh Kalia.

He said that Himachal was the land of martyrs since independence and the Prime Minister had special love for the state. He had given several benefits to the state but the government here was not passing them on to the people.

Shah was accompanied by the senior BJP leaders, including Kangra BJP MP Shanta Kumar, former CM Prem Kumar Dhumal, union minister for health JP Nadda and state BJP president Satpal Satti.