After Rahul Gandhi’s UC Berkeley speech, V-P Naidu says ‘dynasty is nasty but tasty to some people’

Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu addressing at the event of “Interaction with the Students “ after the inauguration of exhibition “New India-We Resolve to Make” at Anna University in Chennai on Sunday. PTI Photo by R Senthil Kumar

Just days after Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s speech in UC Berkeley where he raked up the ‘dynasty’ debate, Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday said dynasty and democracy can’t go together. In a statement to news agency ANI, Naidu said: “Dynasty is nasty but tasty to some ppl.”

The Vice-President, however, steered clear from taking any names. “Not speaking about a party or person,” he added. Naidu’s remarks come days after Rahul Gandhi had spoken about dynastic politics in a speech at UC Berkeley, where he had said, “Most parties in India have that problem. So don’t give us stick because Akhilesh Yadav is a dynast. Stalin is a dynast. (Prem Kumar) Dhumal’s son is a dynast, even Abhishek Bachchan is a dynast. That is how India runs.”

He further added: “But saying that, I do try to sort of change it in the Congress. If you look at the Congress, there is a large number of people who are not from dynastic families at all. I can name them in every state.” He added that the real question is  whether the person is actually capable. “Is the person a sensitive person? That is the question.” Also Read: Certain amount of arrogance crept into Congress in 2012, ended culture of conversation: Rahul Gandhi at UC Berkeley

BJP President Amit Shah too slammed the Congress leader for his statement on dynastic politics when he said that his party has removed dynastic politics from India and introduced the politics of performance. “We do not believe in the politics of appeasement which is votebank politics. We have removed dynastic politics from India. We believe in the politics of performance.” Also Read: BJP has removed dynastic politics from India, says BJP President Amit Shah

Shah added that the Modi government showed political will in the last three years to take decisions unlike the previous Congress-led government which had suffered from policy paralysis.