If there is one thing that the Congress politicians are extremely adept at, it is the art of axing their own feet. In their bid to gain political advantage, the Congress politicians have indulged into a sort of abuse fest, their target being the current Indian PM, Narendra Modi. Be it Raj Babbar taking a sly dig at PM Modi’s mother, or another Congress politician mocking his father’s identity, the Congress politicians have only stooped lower in their lowly quest to usurp power by any means.
However, one man did not take these barbs lying down. In a long but effective Facebook post, current finance minister and BJP veteran Arun Jaitley took a royal dig at such politicians, questioning their commitment to the nation and asking if dynasty politics was more important than the national integrity.
Arun Jaitley had recently posted on Facebook in response to the attack of Congress politician Vilas Muttemwar, who asked as to who is Narendra Modi’s father, in an attempt to glorify the deeds of the Gandhi Nehru dynasty. To quote his post, ‘The debate whether India should be a dynastic democracy has been ignited by a self-goal of the Congress Party. The argument given was that if you represent the legacy of a well-known family, it is a political point in your favour. Millions of talented political workers who come from modest family backgrounds would fail by the Congress test of leadership. Merit, talent, ability to inspire and lead would not be a virtue. The Congress considers only a great surname as a political brand.’
Then, he dropped the bombshell, with the following questionnaire :
‘On hearing this rationale, I asked a few well informed friends of mine three questions:
(1) What is the name of Gandhiji’s father?
(2) What is the name of Sardar Patel’s father?
(3) What is the name of Sardar Patel’s wife?’
If this was the criteria to test how good the leadership of Congress is, we’re sure that 99% of the current Congress leaders would horribly fail on this benchmark. They’ve been thriving on the dose of dynast politics, where the chosen leader is supreme, and unquestionable. With this post, Arun Jaitley hasn’t only given an effective retort to the barb of Mr. Muttemwar; he has also sent a clear message: real leaders don’t need a dynasty to thrive on.
Thereafter, in a fierce attack on the Nehru Gandhi dynasty, Shri Arun Jaitley further wrote, ‘The country pays a price for dynastic policies as we have witnessed in several regions. Three families – two of them in Srinagar and one in New Delhi in the last 71 years have played with the destiny of Jammu and Kashmir. The consequences are obvious. Following the dynastic pattern of leadership within the Congress, several other parties have followed the same principle. In such organizations there is no inner party democracy, there are no ideological principles’
With this post, Arun Jaitley has put forward an important point. Real leaders are not those who have the backing of dynasty politics, but those who can make people achieve the impossible. Real leaders like Sardar Patel, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, and Veer Savarkar etc. have actually contributed their blood and sweat in the building of our nation, and the names of their respective father is simply irrelevant.
This is something that dynasty lovers like Congress will not understand, and unless they remove this malaise from their party, it is unlikely that they will continue for long with their present antics. The message in Arun Jaitley’s post is crystal clear: Dynasty can never be above the nation.