New Delhi: BJP president Amit Shah hit out at the Congress on Sunday accusing the party of being a “family-run enterprise”. In a dig at Congress leaders, including Mr P. Chidambaram who had named several party presidents hailing from outside the Gandhi family, Mr Shah said in tweets that Modi’s challenge had ruffled several feathers with “many courtiers going out of the way to prove their loyalty”. Evidently, the Prime Minister’s point had struck a raw nerve, he added.
Mr Shah tweeted, “The Prime Minister is right. The Congress (Indira) since its inception in 1978 has been led by four members of one family for most of the years, thus making it more of a family enterprise aimed at dynastic service rather than a political party aimed at public service.” He was referring to the split in the Congress in 1978 following its loss in the 1977 parliamentary polls, with the Indira Gandhi-led faction recognised as Congress(I). As she returned to power in 1980, her faction was later recognised by the Election Commission (EC) as the real Congress. Two Congress chiefs, who were not from the Nehru-Gandhi family, were treated in the “most shabby” manner possible in the recent past, Mr. Shah alleged. The BJP chief further added, “Going further back in time, the likes of Babu Jagjivan Ram, S. Nijalingappa, K. Kamaraj were humiliated by one family. Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy, though senior, was not allowed to be president by one family. U.N. Dhebar was asked to step aside as Congress president for Indira Gandhi.”
