Amit Shah at the BJP national executive meet in Telangana
The next 30-40 years will be the era of the BJP which will make India a "Vishwa Guru" (world leader), Home Minister Amit Shah said on Sunday. The BJP will end "family rule" in Telangana and West Bengal and also form governments in states where power has so far remained out of the party's reach, Mr Shah said at the BJP's national executive meeting.
He called for ending the politics of dynasty, casteism and appeasement and cited the party's win in recent elections as an endorsement of its "politics of development and performance".
Mr Shah identified southern India as the region for the BJP's next round of growth. He said the opposition had become disjointed and dispirited with Congress members fighting for democracy within their organisation.
Mr Shah also praised as "historic" the recent Supreme Court verdict dismissing a plea challenging the Special Investigation Team's (SIT) clearance to 64 people, including then Chief Minister Narendra Modi, in the 2002 Gujarat riots case. The court had also come down hard on the petitioners.
The verdict exposed opposition parties, a section of media and some NGOs for their conspiracy to defame PM Modi, Mr Shah said.
Mr Shah said PM Modi received insults, maintained silence while facing the SIT and kept his faith in the Constitution and contrasted it with the Congress's attempt to spread "anarchy" after its leader Rahul Gandhi was summoned by the Enforcement Directorate in the National Herald case.
Briefing reporters on Mr Shah's speech, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said PM Modi never did the kind of "drama" that Mr Gandhi did while facing a lawful investigation.
The BJP's political resolution praised the Agnipath scheme for short-term recruitment into the armed forces.
Claiming that the BJP will end family rule in states like Telangana and West Bengal, Mr Shah said it will come to power in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Odisha, states which have so far remained out of the party's power march since it formed government at the centre in 2014.
Criticising Mr Shah for his remarks, the Trinamool Congress said the people of West Bengal rejected the BJP's "divisive politics" in the assembly elections last year.
Trinamool state general secretary Kunal Ghosh said that "Amit Shah, whose dream to occupy power in West Bengal was not fulfilled in 2021", was yet to "digest the humiliating defeat".
"If the BJP holds a mirror to itself, the party will see how it has been abetting politics of dynasty. It inducted the entire Adhikari family of Bengal's Purba Medinipur district in its fold - Suvendu and his two brothers - and Amit Shah had invited Suvendu's father Sisir Adhikari in his public meeting. And what about the Scindia family and Kailash Vijayvargiya's son? In Trinamool Congress, no such things happen," Mr Ghosh said.