Dynastic politics should stop: Varun Gandhi

RANCHI: Admitting that he has reaped benefits from dynastic politics, Varun Gandhi on Thursday said he could not have become a Member of Parliament (MP) at the age of 29 years if he was not born in a family of politicians and urged political parties to shun the practice. The 38-year-old grandson late Prime MInister Indira Gandhi first became an MP from Pilibhit in Uttar Pradesh in 2009.
Gandhi, a BJP MP from Sultanpur in Uttar Pradesh, said the political parties should provide opportunities to deserving youngsters from apolitical backgrounds to contest the Lok Sabha and state assembly elections.
He was in Ranchi on Thursday to participate in a youth conference. During the conference, Gandhi stressed that transparency in information and making institutions like the Election Commission of India and the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) robust can check the corruption.
"The roads are not easy for our youth in any profession. I could not have become a MP at the age of 29 years if I was not born in a political family," Gandhi said while describing the challenges before the country's youth to an auditorium full of students.
"During the panchayat elections in UP, I told my party leaders to give youngsters a chance (in panchayats under Sultanpur parliamentary constituency). I told them that the candidates should not be sons, daughters or relatives of any panchayat pradhan. In the end, 60% of them (who were fielded) won," Gandhi said. "Similarly, political parties must allow fresh blood from apolitical lineages to contest in Lok Sabha and state assembly elections as well," he said.
Gandhi's remarks came days after BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, attacked the Congress during the campaigning for the May 12 Karnataka assembly polls for promoting dynasty politics and called Rahul Gandhi a 'Naamdar'.
Gandhi also called the practice of MPs giving themselves a salary hike shameful. "I am not against hikes for MPs but against the system where a man can increase his salary just by raising a hand," the son of Union women and child development minister Maneka Gandhi said amid roaring applause from the audience.
The two-time MP advocated for the need to implement the Right to Recall bill saying that it can make the country's democracy participatory. "There is no role of the people once they elect their representatives. This law can give people the power to recall their representatives and strengthen the democracy," Gandhi added.