Cabinet succumbs to dynastic pressure in withdrawing ordinance: BJP

NEW DELHI: BJP today slammed the UPA government which decided to withdraw the ordinance that sought to give protection to convicted lawmakers from disqualification, saying it has succumbed to "dynastic" pressure.

"It has nothing to do with morality, legality, validity constitutionality. It is the sheer power of dynasty before which the PM and the cabinet meekly submitted," said senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad after the union cabinet withdrew the ordinance.

The overturning of the decision by the cabinet came in the wake of Rahul Gandhi's trashing of the ordinance as "complete nonsense". He had said it should be "torn" and "thrown out".

Prasad said the develeopment has vindicated "BJP's stand that the dynasty is far more important in this government than the PM and the cabinet".

"What happened today is the confirmation of what BJP has been saying that in this government, the Prime Minister and the cabinet is not important but what is important is the dynasty.

"The dynasty was constrained to intervene just to create a facade of the stand having been taken," he said, terming the entire episode as a "theatre of the absurd".