Family-oriented parties can never work for welfare of poor, Dalits, farmers, tribals: Shah

Family-oriented parties can never work for welfare of poor, Dalits, farmers, tribals: Shah

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday slammed the INDIA bloc for practising dynastic politics, and said in the upcoming elections, people have to choose between a leader who worked for taking every section of society forward and those who promote their own family members.

Addressing back-to-back election rallies in Madhya Pradesh in support of BJP Lok Sabha candidates, Shah asserted that for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, only four ''castes'' exist in the country and they are the poor, youth, farmers and women, and his main aim was their empowerment.

The senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader underscored that family-oriented parties will never be able to do welfare of the poor, Dalit, farmers, youths, tribals, women and backward communities, and that they can only engage in corruption and scams.

''Members of the INDI alliance won't be able to do any good for people. These dynastic parties will never do any good for the poor, Dalits, farmers, youths, tribal, women and backward communities. If there is anyone who is committed to their welfare, then it is Prime Minister Modi's government,'' the former BJP president maintained.

Shah was addressing an election meeting in the Katni area under the Khajuraho Lok Sabha seat from where the saffron party has re-nominated sitting MP and state BJP president Vishnu Dutt Sharma.

Hitting out at anti-BJP outfits, Shah alleged these parties can only indulge in corruption and financial irregularities, and that is reflected in their history too as he highlighted UPA-era scams like those related to the 2010 Commonwealth Games, 2G, land-for-jobs, Saradha chit fund, and the Jammu & Kashmir Cricket Association, among others.

''The only aim of these family-oriented parties is to get power for their sons, daughters and nephews. The aim of Sharad Pawar is to make his daughter chief minister (of Maharashtra), Uddhav Thackeray to make his son CM, (M K) Stalin to make his son CM, Mamata Banerjee to make her nephew CM (of Bengal) and of (Congress leader) Sonia Gandhi to make Rahul Baba Prime Minister,'' Shah remarked.

Slamming the Congress, the BJP's star campaigner emphasised the grand old party ruled the country for 70 years on the basis of casteism, dynastic politics, and corruption but Modi in the last ten years has worked to wipe them out from the country.

Recalling the UPA regime (2004-14), the Union Home Minister said during those ten years, the country frequently faced terror strikes and bomb blasts, but the Congress, which headed that government, didn't do anything to stop them.

After 2014, when the BJP came to power at the Centre under Modi's leadership, within ten days of the Pulwama attack, the country conducted surgical and air strikes inside Pakistan to eliminate terrorists.

The BJP leader emphasised that in the last 10 years, Indian economy has jumped from the 11th place to the 5th in terms of size, and asked voters to give another term to PM Modi so that the country occupies the third largest slot.

Shah listed welfare schemes launched by the Modi government like Ujjwala (providing LPG connections to women from poor households), Ayushman (free treatment for up to Rs 5 lakh), free ration to crores of people and Kisan Samman Nidhi (financial aid to farmers), among others.

Toilets were constructed in 80 lakh households to give respect to women and 88 lakh sisters and mothers were provided LPG cylinders to ensure a smoke-free kitchen environment, he said.

The Modi government is providing 5kg free ration per person every month to 70 to 80 crore people in the country much to the surprise of the world, the Union minister noted.

Earlier in the day, Shah addressed an election rally in Mandla in support of BJP candidate and Union minister Faggan Singh Kulaste and lashed out at the INDIA bloc for promoting dynastic politics.

''There is a team led by PM Modi and the one led by Congress party leadership. The only aim of the 'ghamandia' (arrogant) alliance (INDIA) is to promote their own family members, while Modi's only aim is to take forward the poor, tribal, Dalits, backward and every section of the society,'' he said.

In the 10 years of the Modi regime, 25 crore people have come out of poverty, the BJP leader noted.

In Madhya Pradesh alone, 95 lakh farmers were given the Kisan Samman Nidhi assistance (of Rs 6,000 per year), 70 lakh women got tap water connection in their houses and more than four crore people got the benefit of the Ayushman Bharat scheme, he said.

The central government has provided houses to 82 lakh beneficiaries and took a number of other steps for the welfare of the poor, Shah maintained.

Although the Congress ruled the country for long, it did not do anything for the tribal community, the senior BJP leader alleged.

''I want to ask (Congress MP) Rahul Gandhi what his party has done for the tribal community. It was the BJP government that made a tribal woman of Odisha, Droupadi Murmu, the President of the country,'' he said.

It was the government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee that formed a separate ministry for tribal welfare, while the Modi dispensation started the practice of observing Adivasi Gaurav Diwas in memory of tribal icon Birsa Munda, Shah said.

The Mandla (ST reserved) Lok Sabha seat will vote in the first phase on April 19 and Khajuraho in the second round on April 26.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)