PM triggers damaad debate during his visit to Jammu
JAMMU: Prime Minister Narendra Modi triggered a damaad debate on Friday while paying tribute to a late Congress leader with remarks that were seen as a veiled dig at Robert Vadra, the son-in-law of the opposition party’s chief, Sonia Gandhi.
Modi was praising Girdhari Lal Dogra, father- in- law of finance minister Arun Jaitley, at the Congress stalwart’s birth centenary celebrations in Jammu by referring to his contributions to society and disdain for dynastic politics. “Dograji was a good judge of character. The example is the sons-in-law he picked,” the PM said at Jammu University. “There are some sons-in-law who do not bask in their in-laws’ glory. Both (Dogra and Jaitley) took their own routes in public life. But today, we all know how political damaads (sons-in-law) can be.” His comment appeared to be aimed at Vadra whose controversial land deals were used by the BJP as ammunition to target the Congress that lost power at the Centre last year amid a flurry of corruption allegations.
“There are some individuals who in their work and life stay alive many years after their death. I believe that Girdhari Lalji is one of them,” he said about Dogra, who was J&K’s finance minister for a record 27 years. “Let us not divide our legacy. Everybody in public life works with some ideology in his lifetime but he lives and dies for the country. It is not for us, who are from the later generations, to create disputes.”
Modi’s remarks came after Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad described Dogra as a “24 carat Congressman” and assumed significance against the backdrop of the opposition party accusing the BJP of trying to appropriate the legacy of its national icons like Sardar Patel, BR Ambedkar and Subhas Chandra Bose.
Congress leader Rajeev Shukla reacted sharply to Modi’s statements, saying dynastic politics was more visible in the BJP than in any other party.
The opposition party said the Prime Minister indulged in cheap politics but avoided the core issue of announcing a development package for Jammu and Kashmir.
“There are several politicians whose kids are in politics. It is there in the BJP, too. But the biggest disappointment is that no package was announced for Jammu and Kashmir,” Congress leader Meem Afzal said. The Prime Minister’s visit was seen as a strong signal from the government after indiscriminate shelling and firing by Pakistan Rangers killed a woman, two soldiers and two villagers along the border. Local media had reported that Modi was likely to announce a special financial package of Rs 70,000 crore to boost development in the trouble-torn state, which has been battered by years of militancy and devastating floods last autumn.
But Modi said nothing about the package, which would have been the biggest-ever for Jammu and Kashmir, currently ruled by an ideologically-divergent alliance of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the BJP. He didn’t comment on the cross-border firing either.
“`50,000 Cr; ` 70,000 Cr; Rs100,000 Cr. How large was the package finally announced for the state?” tweeted former chief minister and National Conference leader Omar Abdullah. “Turned out to be the perfect round figure.”