Family-run parties are the biggest threat to India's democracy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday as he launched an all-out attack on the Congress and held it responsible for several ills confronting the country.
Replying to the debate on the motion of thanks to the president's address in the Rajya Sabha, he said the people of the country had to wait for many years to get basic facilities like water, power and roads because of the the Congress.
As the opposition party, too, the Congress is creating hurdles in the country's development, he alleged.
He also accused the Congress of being in the grip of urban Naxals, who are today controlling its thought and ideology. That is why, the prime minister added, the grand old party has become negative. "The Congress in a way is in the grip of urban Naxals. That is why its thought has become negative."
Modi suggested that the opposition party change its name from Indian National Congress to 'Federation of Congress'.
He said when a family is paramount in a particular party, the biggest casualty is talent.
He also attacked the Congress for sacking over 50 state governments of several parties during its over 50-year rule at the Centre.
Taking a jibe at the Congress, the prime minister said if it was not there, the country would not have seen Emergency, the massacre of Sikhs and the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley.