Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday said he was embarrassed by Rahul Gandhi’s statement that dynasty politics was in India’s character.
Last week, the Congress vice president, during a speech at the University of California in Berkeley, said, “Dynastic politics is a problem in all political parties. Akhilesh Yadav, Stalin and even actor Abhishek Bachchan are dynasts... So don’t go just after me.” Referring to that statement, Jaitley told ANI, “Mujhe sharam aayi jab Amreeka mein baith ke kaha gaya ki parivarvaad is desh ke svabhaav mein hai [I was embarrassed when someone sitting in America said that dynasty politics is in India’s character].”
Jaitley said some parties may think “being centred around a dynasty is an asset but in the long run, it becomes a burden”.
A few days after Gandhi’s speech, Vice President Venkaiah Naidu and Bharatiya Janata Party Chief Amit Shah had also criticised him. Naidu had said that dynasty and democracy don’t go together, and “dynasty is nasty, but tasty to some people.”
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