Rahul Gandhi taunts BJP, lists 'inheritor' ministers

New Delhi: Facing the 'dynast' barb constantly from the BJP, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday tried to return the compliment by listing out 20 ministers in the third Modi government, most of whom earned their political position through family inheritance. Yet, the Gandhi family scion also tried to distinguish his family-oriented political ascendency by lamenting how the BJP had dubbed the "tradition of struggle, service and sacrifice of generations" as "nepotism".

"Those who call the tradition of struggle, service and sacrifice of generations as nepotism are distributing the will of power to their 'government family'. This difference between words and actions is called Narendra Modi!", Gandhi posted in Hindi on X.

Gandhi also dragged Union health minister JP Nadda into the list by arguing that the latter's mother-in-law Jayashree Banerjee was a former BJP MP and minister in Madhya Pradesh. Other ministers named by Gandhi included HD Kumaraswamy (son of ex-PM HD Deve Gowda), Jyotiraditya Scindia (son of the late Madhavrao Scindia), Raksha Khadse (daughter of Eknath Khadse), Jayant Chaudhary (son of late Ajit Singh), Chirag Paswan (son of late Ram Vilas Paswan), Kamlesh Paswan (son of Om Prakash Paswan, former LS candidate, UP), Ram Mohan Naidu ( son of ex-TDP leader, the late Yerran Naidu), Jitin Prasada (son of Jitendra Prasada), Shantanu Thakur (son of Manjul Krishna Thakur, ex-minister, WB), Rao Inderjit Singh (son of ex-Haryana CM Rao Birendra Singh), Piyush Goyal (son of ex-BJP minister Ved Prakash Goyal), Kirti Vardhan Singh (son of ex-UP Minister Anand Singh), Virendra Kumar Khatik ( brother-in-law of ex-MP minister Gauri Shankar Shejwar), Ravneet Singh Bittu (grandson of the late Punjab CM Beant Singh), Dharmendra Pradhan (son of ex-Union minister D Pradhan), Anupriya Patel (daughter of Apna Dal founder, the late Sonelal Patel) and Annapurna Devi (daughter of ex-Bihar MLA Ramesh Prasad Yadav).