NEW DELHI: Taking a swipe at the Congress embroiled in an internal feud, Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Friday alleged "the family" has paralysed the grand old party in a bid to make the 'panja' (party's symbol) "personal property".
The internal feud of the Congress escalated on Thursday with some senior leaders coming out in strong defence of the top leadership and slammed Kapil Sibal and other dissenting veterans of the group of 23 (G-23) who in turn strongly condemned the attack on the house of the former union minister here calling it an "orchestrated hooliganism".
Asked about the ongoing turmoil in the Congress, Naqvi told reporters here, "We (government) want a strong opposition, not one full of contradictions and confusion".
The Minority Affairs Minister said while on the one hand, the grand old party has been hit by a "tsunami of political crisis", on the other it is suffering from "frustrated feudal authority".
In an obvious reference to the Gandhi family, he said "The family has paralysed the grand old party in a mess to make the 'panja' a personal property."
Some people are trying to become "chieftains" of the opposition but their own party has slipped out of their hands, Naqvi said.
The Congress has become a "non-performing asset" which has neither any value outside nor inside, the senior BJP leader alleged.