‘Look inward’: Oppn slams PM over I-Day speech

Moments after Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Independence Day speech urged people to fight “parivarvad”, the opposition parties including Congress reacted very sharply saying the BJP, too, has many dynasts and that nepotism is not possible in electoral politics as the leaders will have to secure the mandate of the people.
“Dynasty has now become the BJP’s internal problem,” said Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera. “Is Modi’s attack against his own ministers and their children,” he asked, referring to Modi’s speech. In his address, the PM said the two big challenges before the country were nepotism and dynasty, and corruption, asserting that “we have to fight” against these together.
Khera said that August 15 was not the day to talk about politics, but blamed the Prime Minister for making changes in the established norms.
Congress leader Alka Lamba hit out at the Centre for fighting the “one family”. In a tweet, she said the central government was fighting only one family, which is fighting against inflation and unemployment.
TMC MP Saugata Roy also responded to PM Modi’s nepotism charge saying the BJP has leaders like Jyotiraditya Scindia who comes from a political family, and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s son is an MLA. He also said Home Minister Amit Shah’s son Jay Shah is in a powerful position.
“His talk on dynasty politics sounds hollow as there is a long list of dynasties within the BJP and others that the BJP has imported from other parties. When he talks about dynastic politics why does he forget about it’s own dynasties like Piyush Goyal, Anurag Thakur and even those like Suvendu Adhikari, who joined from other parties,” questioned Congress national spokesperson, Shama Mohamed.
The opposition also pointed out leaders who come from political families like former Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje’s son, Dushyant Singh, a BJP MP. Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai son of former CM, BR Bommai; Punjab leader Sunil Jakhar and former minister of state for home, R.P.N. Singh.