For most, family is party: Modi's attack on Congress

New Delhi, Jan. 23 (IANS): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday took a jibe at the Opposition parties, saying for most of them family is party while for the BJP the party is the family. The Prime Minister's remarks came on a day when the Congress appointed Priyanka Gandhi as it's General Secretary in-charge of Uttar Pradesh. "BJP does not take decisions based on what one person or one family wants, and that's why it is said mostly in the country family is the party, but in BJP party is the family," he said. He was addressing booth-level party workers from Baramati, Gadchiroli, Hingoli, Nanded and Nandurbar in Maharashtra through video conferencing. "I can confidently say that BJP is the sole political party in the country that fully adheres to its democratic principles. We have always been at the forefront of preserving democracy in the country. "Everyone knows that our millions of Karyakartas were the staunchest critics of the undemocratic Emergency when it was forcefully imposed on us," he said. Attacking the Congress he said that dynasty, corruption, casteism has been in the 'gotra' of the grand old party and when he says "Congress mukt Bharat", it means fighting to remove this culture from Indian politics. Interacting with party workers of Baramati, Modi also slammed NCP chief Sharad Pawar, saying he was humiliated by the Congress and now he has joined hands with it. "He was humiliated in the party just because he wanted to be a candidate for the party's President. Such thing can happen in dynast parties. Despite this Pawarji has today joined hands with the Congress," Modi said. Describing the ways in which the incumbent government under his leadership has eased living for the ordinary people of the country, he said that creating people-friendly systems and mechanisms in the country is one of the main pillars of his governance. "Such systems and processes need to be based upon 'people-first' approaches while also being technologically advanced and effective in order to address the issues of citizens in the 21st century," he said. Commenting on the different approaches adopted by his government he said, "You would have seen in the last four and a half years the complete transformation of how a government works, we not only start important projects but also ensure their completion in a time-bound manner." The Prime Minister said his government was not only completing the projects started by it but also completing the ones that were started by previous governments. He said it was the result of this continuous effort that in the last four and a half years, stalled projects worth more than Rs 12 lakh crore have been restarted. Priynaka's appointment is Cong's admission of Rahul's leadership failure: BJP New Delhi, Jan. 23 (PTI): The BJP Wednesday termed Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's entry into active politics as an admission by the Congress that its president Rahul Gandhi has "failed" in providing leadership and said he has opted for family "crutches" after facing rejection from other opposition parties. Priyanka's appointment as the Congress general secretary for Uttar Pradesh, East, which marked her entry into the party's hierarchy, was used by BJP leaders to take a swipe at the president of the opposition party and also at its "family rule. BJP leaders chose not to target Priyanka even though they latched on to her appointment to target her brother and her party's "dynastic leadership", claiming that the party is family in their organisation while the family is party in the Congress. BJP leader and Union minister Piyush Goyal said while Prime Minister Narendra Modi thinks about the poor and provided them 10 per cent quota recently, in the Congress there is reservation for the members of only one family. Goyal's cabinet colleague Ravi Shankar Prasad said wryly that since the Congress is a "family concern", there is nothing unusual except about her appointment and wondered why was given the limited role of eastern UP as her persona merited a wider role for her. Soon after her appointment, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra told reporters, "The Congress has basically publicly announced that Rahul Gandhi has failed and needs crutches from within the family. Because of his rejection by grand alliance parties, he has opted for a family alliance". The new India is asking the question, the BJP leader said, that who will be the next leader in the Congress as he referred to its succession line from Jawaharlal Nehru to Indira Gandhi followed by Rajiv Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. "All appointments are from one family. And this is the fundamental difference between the Congress and the BJP. In the Congress, the family is party. In the BJP, the party is family," Patra said. Indicating that the ruling party will use the development to sharpen its attack on the Congress, he said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has projected the Lok Sabha elections as a battle between "naamdar" (dynasts) and "kaamdar" (those who have worked). BJP leader and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman the dynastic politics has taken two steps forward with Priyanka's appointment. Party's spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain described the move as a step taken by the Congress in panic but she cannot stop her party's "inevitable defeat in the Lok Sabha polls. "The Congress has accepted the fact that it cannot win elections under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi. She had campaigned for the Congress in 2014 general elections in Uttar Pradesh and we all know what the outcome was," he said. The BJP had won 71 of 80 seats in the state in 2014. Taking a jibe, the ruling party's general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya said only "jijaji"- a reference to Rahul's brother-in-law Robert Vadra- has been left out now and that he should be made the treasurer of the Congress. BJP MP Anurag Thakur, who is its chief whip in the Lok Sabha, said hardworking Congress party workers continue to be overlooked while members of a family continue to get promoted. Taking a dig at Rahul Gandhi, he wondered if he couldn't trust anyone from UP Congress to lead the party.