BJP has removed dynastic politics from India: Shah

Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah said on Tuesday that his party has removed dynastic politics from India and introduced the politics of performance.

"We do not believe in the politics of appeasement which is votebank politics. We have removed dynastic politics from India. We believe in the politics of performance," he said during an interaction with intellectuals on the second day of his three-day visit to Kolkata.

His remarks came on a day Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi said that dynasties were commonplace in India, from politics to business, and asserted that a person's capabilities were more important than pedigree.

Shah said the Narendra Modi government has in the last three years shown the political will to take decisions unlike the previous Congress-led government which had suffered from policy paralysis.

For the first time since Independence, India has a government which is not only for urban India but also for rural India, he said.

The Modi government has taken several 'historic steps' -- from opening bank accounts to providing LPG connection for poor families and construction of 4.5 crore toiletshe said.

It has also taken decisions like demonetisation, introduction of the GST and the surgical strikes, he said.

The biggest achievement of the Modi government, however, is that it changed the scale of India's thinking and even its biggest critic cannot level any corruption charge against it, Shah said.

The government has the political will to take strong decisions for the benefit of the people in the country, he said, noting it is easy to pursue populist policies but tough to take strong decisions.

Highlighting the achievements of the Modi government in terms of economic growth, Shah said, "In the last three years, India has emerged as the fastest growing economy in the world and this was not an easy task. We have controlled price rise in the country."

Claiming that the BJP is the biggest political party in the world, the party chief said that its government has taken tough decisions for other political parties as well.

Earlier, a political party could receive cash donation up to Rs 20,000 but now it has been brought down to Rs 2,000 only, he said.

Shah said the government has also taken strong steps to unearth black money.

Earlier, talking to reporters, Shah accused the ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal of unleashing violence against BJP workers in the state and urged human rights organisations to speak against it.

The BJP leader said no violence can stop the growth of his party in Bengal, he said.

"Today, I met the family members of the victims of political violence in West Bengal in the last six months... All these happened because they did not support the ideology of the Trinamool Congress.

"I want to ask the people here -- is this Rabindranath Tagore's Bengal? Is this Swami Vivekananda's Bengal? No one has the freedom to be a part of any political party other than the TMC," he said.

This kind of violence was perhaps not seen anywhere else, Shah said.

Several people have been killed, many injured and their property destroyed, he alleged targeting the state government led by Mamata Banerjee.

The BJP chief said development cannot take place in the state under such circumstances and urged human rights organisations to report political violence against BJP workers in the state.

The victims of the alleged violence from various parts of the state today met Shah at the ICCR auditorium. Sentu Mondal and Hemen Mondal from Malda district who were allegedly attacked by TMC activists last year during Durga Puja met Shah.

"I have told Amit Shahji how my husband was killed by TMC goons just for believing in the ideology of the BJP and RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh)," Prova Mondal, the widow of another victim, alleged.

IMAGE: BJP president Amit Shah addresses a a meeting with the intellectuals in Kolkata on Tuesday.  Photograph: Ashok Bhaumik/PTI Photo