Congress just bhai-behan party, says JP Nadda

NEW DELHI: Reasserting the party’s strong views against family-dominated political parties, BJP president JP Nadda on Thursday said that Congress is neither national nor Indian nor democratic and that it has become a “party of bhai-behan”.
Addressing a seminar on the ‘Threat of Dynastic Political Parties to Democratic Governance’, Nadda said one person’s interest reigns supreme in dynastic parties and such parties are a threat to democracy.
While the Constitution bars any discrimination on the basis of birth, the leadership in these parties is decided on the basis of birth and others are ignored, he said, mentioning a host of dynasty-run regional parties in almost every state. These parties lack any ideology and their sole aim is to grab power, he said.
Nadda accused Congress of not giving space to regional aspirations during its dominance over national politics.
As regional parties grow, personality cults become “overbearing and overwhelming” in these outfits, sidetracking ideology and local aspirations, Nadda said.
“What is saddening is that Congress has become neither national nor Indian nor democratic. It is standing now as a party of bhai-bahan (brothersister),” he said, in an apparent reference to Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra running the show.
BJP is the only party where internal democracy is maintained, Nadda said.