Neither Indian nor democratic: JP Nadda blasts the Congress for ignoring objectivity, branding it a “bhai-behen” party

*Paromita Das
JP Nadda, National President of the BJP, attacked the Congress on Thursday for “sidelining objectivity and prioritising subjectivity.”

He claimed that the Indian National Congress was neither Indian nor democratic, and that it had devolved into a ‘Bhai-Behen’ party.

Nadda said at a national seminar on the ‘Threat of Dynastic Political Parties to Democratic Governance’ in Delhi that family-run parties’ only goal is to gain power. “They lack ideology. Their programmes are also ad hoc “he stated. Nadda slammed some regional parties, many of which are led by families –

Jammu and Kashmir’s PDP and National Conference, Punjab’s Shiromani Akali Dal, Haryana’s INLD, Uttar Pradesh’s Samajwadi Party, Bihar’s RJD, West Bengal’s TMC (Mamata and Abhishek Banerjee), and Jharkhand’s JMM. “Family parties include the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in Orissa, the YSRCP in Andhra Pradesh, the TRS in Telangana, the Karunanidhi family in Tamil Nadu, and the Shiv Sena and the NCP in Maharashtra. The Congress has also become a brother-sister party, rather than a national, Indian, or democratic party “he stated. According to the BJP chief, the saffron party is fighting against family-oriented parties in the country.

He stated that these parties operate on the principle of ‘My wish, My laws.’ ” Regional parties must gain power by any means possible in order to keep up with polarisation. They create polarisation based on caste or religion. “National issues are sidelined, and they use polarisation to gain power,” he said. According to Nadda, some people have captured regional parties because ideology in these parties has been abandoned and families have come to the fore. “In this way, regional parties have become family parties,” he explained.