PM heaps praise on 'Millenial Nitin', says family-based parties lack BJP’s strengths

Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached out to the youth in his welcome speech for the “millennial” BJP President Nitin Nabin on Tuesday, emphasising that the young will lead India in the march towards becoming a Viksit Bharat. While highlighting that his cadre-based party is one where leaders change but the organisation remains firm on its ideals, Modi slammed the family-based parties for “closing doors” to talented youth and lacking the courage for post-defeat analysis as it would lead the blame to the dynasts.

The prime minister also accused the Opposition of being soft towards infiltrators for vote bank politics and pandering to “urban naxals”. He cautioned his own rank and file against going the Congress way, saying BJP is not just “a party with a difference” but also “a party of governance” and this brings added responsibilities on them.

“You know that today, while BJP is focused on expansion, equal priority is on grooming the workers. People may feel Narendra Modi is the prime minister for the third time, that he has headed a government for 25 years (including Gujarat CM). But all this aside, I am a BJP worker first. This is the biggest matter of pride. When it comes to the party, I am a worker and Nitin Nabin is my boss. He is the president of all of us,” Modi said, adding that Nabin will also have to handle relations with NDA partners.


Modi heaped praise on Nabin, underscoring that he has excelled in every responsibility assigned to him, be it in the youth wing, election incharge in states or as a minister in Bihar.

“Twenty five years of this century have already passed and the next 25 are very important. This is the time period in which Viksit Bharat will be achieved and this is destined to happen. Nabin will take the march forward. If I use today’s lingo, Nitin himself is in a way a millennial. He is from a generation which has seen economic, social and technological changes taking place. He is among those who got information from radio as a child and is today an active user of AI. He has energy and experience,” Modi said.

The prime minister emphasised that the BJP leadership is guided by traditions, strengthened by experience and takes the organisation forward with the beliefs of service to the people and the nation. “All this is reflected in BJP’s journey from inception to its peak,” he said.

Modi exuded confidence that BJP will do well in the forthcoming Assembly elections and carry on the victory march seen in the recent corporation elections in Maharashtra and Kerala’s Thiruvananthpuram, apart from the wins in Assembly polls in four states.

“BJP made a mark in its initial days as a ‘party with a difference’ but today it is also the party of governance. The country has seen various party models, be it family-based one of Congress, the Left and regional party models, as well as the unstable governments. But today the nation is witnessing a stable, good governance and sensitive dispensation of BJP,” Modi said.

The prime minister described BJP as not just the largest party in the largest political organisation in the world but one which is like a family. “More than membership, we have a relationship. Here the president changes but the ideals remain the same. The leadership changes but not the direction of the party,” he said.

He attacked the Opposition parties for allowing infiltration for vote bank politics, underlining that such intruders should be identified and sent back to their countries.

Slamming the Congress on dynasty politics and emphasising the need to avoid its model, Modi said, “Family-based parties closed doors to the talented youth. I gave a call for one lakh youth from non-political families to enter politics… In 1984, Rajiv Gandhi-led Congress got more than 400 seats but today it is fighting to reach 100. If Congress does an analysis of its poll defeats and gets into the reasons for its decline, it will lead to the family. They have even lost the courage to go into the reasons,” he said, adding that BJP does a deep analysis of seats lost even after an election victory.