Nepotism exists in every political party: Congress leader Ragini Nayak

Congress leader Ragini Nayak on Friday said that nepotism exists in every political party.

''Had nepotism not existed in other political parties, politicians like (Union minister) Anurag Thakur, (BJP secretary) Pankaja Munde and (former Uttar Pradesh chief minister) Akhilesh Yadav would have not emerged,'' she said, responding to a question on nepotism in her Congress party.

To another query, she said the election to the post of Congress president was to be held in June but it had to be postponed due to the COVID-19 situation.

Asked about the issue of nepotism, the Himachal Pradesh BJP's chief spokesperson Randhir Sharma said, ''As far as nepotism in Congress is concerned, the post of president in that party is reserved for one family.'' The BJP leader said in his party politicians get high places because of their hard work. Union Minister Anurag Thakur has won elections for four times and he has recently been promoted to a cabinet minister considering his performance, Sharma added.

All India Congress Committee (AICC) spokesperson Nayak was addressing the media at the Congress state headquarters Rajiv Bhawan here on the National Monetisation Pipeline announced by the Centre last month.

The Congress held a series of press conferences by its leaders across the country to protest against the monetisation scheme.

Nayak, accompanied by Himachal Pradesh Congress president Kuldeep Singh Rathore, flayed the Narendra Modi government over the monetisation pipeline.

What the Modi government has planned is a ''day-light robbery of assets'' which took the Congress-led governments over six decades to build, she added.

The Congress party monetised non-core, loss-making assets when in power, in contrast to what the Narendra Modi government proposes to do, she added.

Nayak said the Congress never sold off strategic and core assets such as the railways and national highways.

''We always ensured that there is no monopoly in monetisation as we chose assets based on criteria,'' she said.

Nayak asked the government if provisions will be made to ensure the monetisation process doesn''t create monopolies or duopolies in any sector.

On August 23, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman unveiled the ambitious Rs 6 lakh crore National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) that included unlocking value by involving private companies across infrastructure sectors -- from passenger trains and railway stations to airports, roads and stadiums.

As many as 25 Airports Authority of India (AAI) airports, including ones at Chennai, Bhopal, Varanasi and Vadodara, as well as 40 railway stations, 15 railway stadiums and an unidentified number of railway colonies have been identified for getting private investments.

Stating that there is no transfer of ownership or land, Sitharaman had said, ''The NMP talks about brownfield infra assets where investments have already been made, where there is a completed asset which is either languishing or which is remaining not fully monetised or which is remaining underutilised.'' Later, Nayak met former MP Pratibha Singh and her son and Shimla Rural MLA Vikramaditya Singh to pay condolences over the demise of former chief minister Virbhadra Singh on July 8.