Thaindian News

New Delhi, June 26 (IANS) As voices are raised in the Congress for Rahul Gandhi as India’s next prime minister, opposition Bharatiya Janata Party leader L.K. Advani Sunday termed it “sad” that the Congress has become the “fiefdom of a single family” and has “reserved” the prime minister’s post for a “nominee” or a member of the Nehru-Gandhi family.

“Prime ministership of a great democracy like India should not be allowed to become the jagirdari of a family,” Advani said in his blog.

“Sadly, the Congress today has become the fiefdom of a single family. The office of prime minister is reserved either for the nominee or a member of the Nehru family,” he added.

“India is paying a heavy price because of a prime minister nominated by the Congress president,” he said.

“And now the demand has arisen from within the Congress Party that a scion of the Nehru family should take over the prime ministership,” Advani, a former deputy prime minister, said.

He was referring to voices in the Congress once again saying that Congress chief Sonia Gandhi’s son Rahul Gandhi fits the bill as the next prime minister of India. Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh had repeatedly said that the MP from Amethi had all the qualities and capabilities to become a “good prime minister”.

“Our country cannot afford continuation of the misrule that UPA represents,” he added.

Advani also said there was a time when the Congress was a broad platform that accommodated patriots of all hues.

In this regard, he said it was at the behest of Mahatma Gandhi that Shyama Prasad Mookerjee, who then belonged to the Hindu Mahasabha, and B.R. Ambedkar, who had been a bitter critic of the Congress party, were included in Jawaharlal Nehru’s first cabinet after Independence in 1947.