The swipe Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national president JP Nadda took during his visit to Bihar at dynastic politics, predicting its extinction, has drawn sharp criticism from the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), which the BJP chief called “family party”.
“In the times to come, only an ideology-driven party like the BJP will survive, while others ruled by families will perish. In Uttar Pradesh, the BJP fought against dynastic politics. In Bihar, the RJD symbolises the same. Congress has also been reduced to ‘bhai-behan ki party’,” Nadda said.
Responding to the statements, Rajya Sabha MP Manoj Jha of the RJD questioned the BJP chief over the very concept of ideology and said “only brazen arrogance can make people make a statement like what the BJP national president has made”.
“I have serious doubts whether he understands the wider meaning of ideology. And I am sure he doesn’t know the distinction between progressive and regressive ideology. He would be better advised to do a short-term course on the political history of India since 1947,” the RJD leader said.
Congress MLC Premchandra Mishra said the statements by both Nadda and Union home minister Amit Shah clearly indicated the purpose for which they had come to Bihar. “It was simply to warn Nitish Kumar that the Janata Dal (United) should stay within limits, or else it will be further cut to size. Dynastic politics is an old ploy of the BJP to deflect attention from core issues. It should look within to assess how many dynasties are prospering within the BJP. The problem is that BJP’s words and actions are always contradictory and that is reflected through the NDA in Bihar also,” he added.
“Kumar also hailed PM’s remarks as accurate about dynastic politics and termed it anti-socialism. He had said that for him, the entire Bihar is like a family, as promoting one’s own family at the expense of dedicated party workers is not socialism. That should put a lid on the Opposition’s greed,” said a senior BJP leader, adding that dynastic politics remained the biggest challenge for present-day politics.
JD(U) general secretary KC Tyagi said that the BJP’s statement of fighting 2024 and 2025 elections together should be enough to quell rumours of alleged fissures within the NDA camp in Bihar.
“There is no confusion about it at the national level in the NDA, it’s just things some local BJP leaders say to create trouble… We also appreciate Nadda’s statement on dynastic politics, which affects most parties both at the national and regional level and also abets casteism. It was not a small thing when the PM put Nitish in the bracket of late Jayaprakash Narayan, Ram Manohar Lohia and George Fernandes. JD(U) opposes all kinds of dynastic politics – from Indira Gandhi to Lalu Prasad,” he added.
Lalu Prasad Yadav is the founder of the RJD, which is now led by his son Tejashwi.