Cong indulging in family fiefdom since Independence: Shah

BJP president Amit Shah today accused the Congress of "indulging in family fiefdom since Independence" and said there was no place for merit in that party.
He claimed that only the Left parties and the BJP had "internal democracy", while there was no such concept in any other party.
Referring to Jharkhand, Shah asked the gathering, "Who will run the party after Guruji (Jharkhand Mukti Morcha president Shibu Soren)? Does anyone have any confusion about it," apparently hinting at JMM working president and Shibu's son, Hemant Soren.
Similarly, he asked the gathering if they had any confusion about who would become the Congress president after Sonia Gandhi.

Shah said in the BJP, intra-party polls were held every three years and anyone could become its president as the person was not elected on the basis of which family he belonged to.
He said the top post in the saffron party was all about commitment and merit and on the basis of that, he, who was a booth-level president of the party years ago, had become its national president.

Shah said the BJP was not in politics to grab power and described it as the "most democratic party" in the country.
"There should be three important things for a party -- internal democracy, functioning on principles and track record," he said.

Stating that almost 1,650 political parties were formed in the country in the last 70 years since Independence, Shah asked the gathering how many of these parties had internal democracy.
He said while the BJP had been working to take the country to the top, the Congress was engaged in "politics of family fiefdom since Independence" and added that "there is no place for merit" in that party.
Shah also alleged that Lalu Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) had no system and added that such parties could do no good to the country.
The BJP chief, who was here in connection with his 110- day countrywide tour, released the 'Deen Dayal Upadhyaya - Sampurna Wangmai (thoughts in totality)', a collection of thoughts of RSS ideologue Upadhyaya, and thanked Dr Mahesh Sharma and his team for bringing it out.

He lauded Upadhyaya for his selfless work for the country and the party and laying the path for a 10-member outfit to become a party of 11 crore members.
Shah said it was a right decision by the Centre and 18 BJP-ruled states to celebrate Upadhyaya's birth centenary year.
The BJP chief criticised the policies formulated soon after Independence, saying these were based on the policies of western countries and cited the example of Shyama Prasad Mukherjee resigning from the Jawaharlal Nehru Cabinet over differences as regards the policies.
Stating that several western countries had only one crop, while India had three, he wanted to know how could one follow the agriculture policies of the western countries in India.

Shah said there should be strong policies to build the nation.
Praising the Raghubar Das government in Jharkhand, the BJP chief said all eyes were on the state. "There is no corruption, but stability and transparency," he added.
Referring to the "bimaru" (sick) states, Shah claimed that Bihar had shed the tag and so did Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan.
"Uttar Pradesh will also come out of it after five years as the BJP has formed a government with a three-fourths majority there," he said.
Shah described Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a "forward looking leader" and said he had earned laurels and respect for the country from all over the world.

"Because of his (Modi's) initiatives, all the countries are now trying to build a good relation with India," he added.
On the other hand, Shah said, during the 10-year rule of the UPA, people had to wait for days to hear prime minister Manmohan Singh speak.
He claimed that the Modi government had successfully stopped the bungling of Rs 57,000 crore with the use of DBT (Direct Benefit Transfer) in government schemes.
It had opened bank accounts for all the poor people in the country, he said, adding that it had also successfully distributed LPG connections among 2.8 crore BPL families in rural areas.

Shah claimed that the BJP government at the Centre was committed to electrifying all the villages in the country by May 26, 2018.
He said the government had constructed 4.5 crore toilets in the country in the first three years of its rule and it was committed to building toilets in all Indian households by 2022, the year the country would be celebrating the 75th anniversary of its independence.
Shah said India had excelled in all the sectors including space science, where it had made a record by launching 104 satellites at one go by a single rocket.
He said the defence personnel were waiting for the One Rank One Pension for over five decades and it was the BJP government, which honoured its promise by transferring Rs 8,500 crore to their bank accounts.

Shah also described last year's surgical strikes, carried out by the Army in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), as one of the biggest achievements of the government, and said they restored self-confidence and honour in every Indian.
He claimed that the country witnessed a paradigm shift under Modi and added that the government was now not reforming, but transforming the country in all the sectors.
The government had a vision for all the people of the country and not for some, Shah said.