Congress slams 'bogus blogger' Arun Jaitley over 'dynasty' remark
New Delhi, Mar 24 (UNI): Hitting back at Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for blaming the party's current travails on its dynastic character, the Congress on Sunday said the latest attack by Jaitley was a "cheap Cover Up Exercise" for the NDA's colossal failures of the past five years.
In a statement issued here, AICC spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said: "'Bogus Blogger’ Arun Jaitley and his incessant rants are being used by the Modi government to hide their massive failures on Unemployment, Rural Distress, Mismanagement of Economy, and Persecution of the Weaker Sections. PM Modi and Mr Jaitley cannot hide behind daily blogs on ‘Non-Issues’ in order to hide the ‘Real-Issues'."
Terming the repeated taking up by the BJP of the issue of "dynastic politics" in the Congress as a sign of its "hypocrisy", Surjewala cited examples of'dynastic politics "in the BJP and it's allies".
"Since the BJP is so fond of talking about ‘dynasty politics’ – here is a small mirror of truth - Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s son Pankaj Singh now an MLA in Uttar Pradesh, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s father-in-law was the finance minister of Jammu and Kashmir for 14 years," he said.
"External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj’s husband Swaraj Kaushal was Governor of Mizoram. Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s father-in-law was a Minister in Andhra Pradesh Govt in 1970s. Railway Minister Piyush Goel’s father was Ved Prakash Goyal who was the Union Minister of Shipping in the Vajpayee government," he said.
Cabinet minister Dharmendra Pradhan is the son of a former minister in the Vajpayee Government, Debendra Pradhan. MoS Jayant Sinha is the son of Former Union Minister, Yashwant Sinha. Rajasthan Ex CM, Vasundhara Raje’s son is Dushyant Singh, who is a BJP MP. Chhattisgarh Ex CM, Dr Raman Singh’s son Abhishek Singh is a BJP MP.
Himachal Pradesh Ex CM Prem Kumar Dhumal’s son is Anurag Thakur, a BJP MP. Ex-Union minister Pramod Mahajan’s daughter Poonam Mahajan is a BJP MP.
These are some prominent examples.
BJP’s oldest ally – Akali Dal is led by former Punjab CM Prakash Singh Badal, whose son Sukhbir Badal was the deputy CM of Punjab and wife Harsimrat Badal, a Union minister in the Modi Government.
BJP’s Bihar ally Lok Jan Shakti Party is led by Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan. His son Chirag Paswan is also an MP.
Citing these examples, Surjewala added family background was not the guarantee for political success.
"It is the people who have the power to accept and reject in the political arena. It is the people of India who have elected the Congress party time and again and shall vote Congress party again to power in 2019 Lok Sabha elections," he said.
Taking a fresh dig at the Congress party in a Facebook blog post, Jaitley had blamed the party's current travails on its dynastic character.
"If the current generation of the party is competent, charismatic and enjoys popular confidence, the dynast can pull-off major victories. There is an incentive in the party to rally behind him. However, if the current generation dynast is lacking in charisma, understanding and popular confidence, the crowd around the family gets increasingly frustrated," he said.
"Is the Congress party witnessing this?" asked Jaitley in his blog.
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