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Advani pillories Nehru-Gandhi family

“In the Congress, for leadership there is reservation for a particular dynasty”

L.K. Advani

New Delhi: Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha L.K. Advani on Friday pilloried the Nehru-Gandhi family for what he described as its brazen appropriation of the Congress and making it a “family fiefdom.”

Addressing the India Today conclave here, he also took a jibe at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, saying he had sympathy for him as the Congress president had become more powerful than him.

Dwelling on how the BJP leadership differed from that of the Congress, he said: “In the Congress party, for leadership there is reservation for members of a particular dynasty. No one else can” become a leader at the top.

“I sometimes feel depressed to see how brazenly an entire party has been appropriated and made into a family fiefdom and how slavishly Congressmen have resigned themselves to this appropriation,” he said.

Mr. Advani said the Indira Gandhi government “altered the basic structure” of the Constitution during the Emergency days and today “they have destroyed the basic structure of the Congress constitution.”

During his 90-minute speech, the BJP leader said the basic difference between the BJP and the Congress was that “we never had a life-long president in our party. Some parties have. We never had. In the Congress party, it is a life-long dynasty.”

Mr. Advani alleged that 10, Janpath (residence of Ms. Gandhi) has become more important than 7 Race Course (Prime Minister’s house) and reiterated that Dr. Singh is the weakest Prime Minister the country has ever had. “Even persons like Deve Gowda, Chandra Shekhar and I.K. Gujral, who did not have big parties with them did not seek the permission for everything from the Congress party,” he said.

“I sometimes pity him. I feel sympathy for him. The office of the Prime Minister has authority which is enormous. There is no lack of authority in that.”

Defending the NDA government’s decision to free three terrorists to end the Kandahar hijacking crisis, Mr. Advani said the “first priority” was to save the hostages. The government took such a decision as all the parties at that time demanded that passengers on board the hijacked plane be safely freed. “The first priority was release of the passengers ... That was the advice given by parties,” he said. — PTI

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