NEW DELHI: Union Minister Arun Jaitley termed Congress as an “ideology-less” party that has embraced “anti-Modism”. Listing out the recent statements of Congress president Rahul Gandhi, Jaitely, in a Facebook blog, concluded that there was no ideological pattern in the utterances of the Opposition leader. He said that ignorance, along with anti-Modi-sm, was a common thread in the statements of Gandhi.
Jaitley, who is recuperating after a kidney transplant, said: “Dynastic political parties are family and personality dominated. Ideology takes a back seat. This can only happen to a party which becomes ideology-less and pushes itself to the fringe, while it’s willing to act as a tailender to regional parties. All this because its only obsession is a person called Narendra Modi.”
Referring to Gandhi’s recent statements about the entrepreneurial skills of shikanjiwalas, dhabawalas and mechanics, Jaitely said the Congress president at least saw virtues in these professions which can act as a launch pad for many start-ups. “The great-grandson of the man who authored The Discovery of India could with his customary inaccuracies one day give to this country his monumental work on ‘The Rediscovery of Coca Cola’,” he mocked.
Jaitley asserted that the Congress had always been anti-OBC (other backward castes). “The OBCs deserted Congress in the early 1990s. The Congress was always anti-OBC. Late Rajiv Gandhi made a strong speech in Parliament against the Mandal Commission. Recently, the Congress Party opposed the grant of constitutional status to the National Commission for Backward Classes,” he said, terming Congress outreach to OBCs as opportunistic.