For Congress, family is above all, says Jaitley

New Delhi: Taking on from where Narendra Modi left, BJP leader Arun Jaitley today stepped up attack on Rahul Gandhi and Congress, terming the party a “dynastic institution” where “the family” must be above Parliament and Council of Ministers.While referring to the massive Sunday rally by Modi in Delhi, the Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha said that the forthcoming election will have two characteristics – anti incumbency and referendum on leadership—and BJP will move forward on both.Jaitely alleged that Rahul had tarnished the image of PM and the cabinet ministers with his outburst against the ordinance on convicted lawmakers approved by the Cabinet.”A party which becomes a dynastic institution, they never accept the established system. Parliament and Council of Ministers are established system and Congress always thinks about how to overrule this system.”The family must be above them and when somebody from the family said something, it has to be implemented. When it was a moral issue for the last one-and-half month, nobody said anything,” he said.Reacting to the recent events surrounding the controversial ordinance, Jaitely said the government cannot understand the basic principle that “what is morally unacceptable is also not politically acceptable”.”There may have been 3-5 people who might have been convicted. A convicted person should continue to be a lawmaker, which is why there was an effort to change the law. This was morally unacceptable. So how can it be politically acceptable? And this discussion was going on from mid July. We can live with the fact if 4-5 convicted people sit outside,” he said during an event today.Jaitley said that the ordinance was brought when the Parliament did not agree to it.Apparently hinting at RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav's conviction in the fodder scam case, Jaitely said those for whom the ordinance was brought, they got punished and now the Congress leaders “are hiding their faces but this situation was created by themselves”.Not naming Rahul Gandhi, Jaitely said that after all this ”he came and said the ordinance was unacceptable. He tarnished the image of PM and the cabinet ministers.”Modi had on Sunday accused Rahul of committing the “sin” of insulting the Prime Minister when he was abroad and asked people to decide in the next Lok Sabha polls if the nation will be run based on the Constitution or whims of the ”prince”. Criticising the meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistan counterpart Nawaz Sharif in Washington, Jaitley said the Prime Minister is not taken seriously either inside the country or outside.He said the entire country wanted India not to have any dialogue with Pakistan given the present scenario.”One could have said that there will be secretary, joint secretary or high commission level talks. But it was made a prestige issue and it was made into a talk between heads of government. But the talks that took place were nothing more than a photo opportunity. There was no headway made and no conclusion came out of it,” Jaitley said.The BJP leader said people are expecting a change and looking towards his party. ”The crowd which is coming to BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi's rally is a representation of that.In those states where the party could not have won a seat on its own, historic rallies are being held be it Delhi, Rewari, Trichi. These are not ordinary crowds,” he added.Stressing that the country is going through an anti- incumbency atmosphere and people are expecting change, Jaitely said be it the country's economic position or corruption or security, each of these is taking the country towards anti- incumbency.