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The BJP has used an article by Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor to sharpen their criticism of the Gandhi family and dynsatic politics in the Congress. BJP national spokeperson Shehzad Poonawalla said the article rightly exposes how the Gandhi family turned Indian politics into a "family business."
While talking to ANI, BJP National Spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla said, "A very insightful piece has been written by Dr Tharoor on how Indian politics has become family business and in the opening of that piece he has explained how the first family of Congress party, the Gandhi-Vadra dynasty has been responsible for cementing this negative thought that political position and power can be a matter of birth right." Referring to Tharoor's essay, Poonawalla said the piece will make RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi uncomfortable. "Tejashwi Yadav and Rahul Gandhi may take his article very personally... Dr Tharoor should be applauded, but now he will get a series of bad words and insults from Kerala Congress and other leaders," he further added. Earlier, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor criticised "dynastic" politics in India, terming it a "grave threat" to democracy, and said it is "high time" the nation moves towards "meritocracy". In an article titled 'Indian Politics Are a Family Business' on Project Syndicate portal, Tharoor termed "dynastic politics, a threat to Indian democracy", and argued that India must move to "merit-based leadership", a view that may be seen as a swipe at the Congress high command and its INDIA bloc allies like Samajwadi Party (SP), Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD) and Shiv Sena (UBT).In the NDA, Tharoor said that the leader of the Lok Janshakti Party, Ram Vilas Paswan, was succeeded by his son, Chirag Paswan. With just two days left for the Bihar assembly polls, Tharoor wrote that, from India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, to Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, and current leaders Rahul Gandhi and MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, the idea has been strengthened that leadership in Indian politics can be a "birthright". "For decades, one family has towered over Indian politics. The influence of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty - including independent India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, prime ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, and current opposition leader Rahul Gandhi and MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra - is bound up with the history of India's struggle for freedom. But it has also cemented the idea that political leadership can be a birthright," he said in a direct attack on Congress. He also called out Congress' INDIA bloc allies over dynastic politics, mentioning Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray, his son Aaditya Thackeray, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, who is the son of former Uttar Pradesh CM Mulayam Singh Yadav. In Jammu and Kashmir, he pointed out the three generations of Abdullahs, and in Tamil Nadu, he highlighted that CM MK Stalin is the son of the late chief minster M Karunanidhi, adding that the family "controls" the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party. (ANI)
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