New Delhi: Union Road and Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari said Tuesday that the lack of conviction to ideology among today’s parliamentarians and politicians have rendered them “neither rightist or leftist”, but only opportunists.
Gadkari was speaking at the Lokmat Parliamentary Awards in Delhi, where he urged parliamentarians to do qualitative work, which would add to the pride of the institution. “But today in our debates, the problem is not matbhed (difference of opinion), but vichar shunyata (emptiness of thought),” he added.
He said more and more people were no longer standing by their thoughts with conviction. This deterioration of ideology was not good for democracy, he said, adding that people have begun to write politicians off as opportunists, rather than rightist or leftist. “Everyone wants to be with the party in power,” the Union minister said.
Apart from Gadkari, Nationalist Congress Party MP Praful Patel – who was part of faction that recently switched from Sharad Pawar’s parent party to the BJP’s ruling coalition in Maharashtra – and central minister Ramdas Athawale also addressed the gathering. Previously with the NCP-Congress coalition, Athawale became a part of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance in the mid-2010s.
Gadkari went on to say that the ruling disposition would continue its work “to enhance the pride of democracy”, which would make the world look at India for “democratic system, rules and methods”.
“That is the kind of development we all have pledged to do. Together we will fulfil it,” the minister said.
In the fifth edition of the awards Tuesday, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor (Lok Sabha) and BJD MP Sasmit Patra (Rajya Sabha) took away the “best parliamentarian” prize.
BJP MP Maneka Gandhi (Lok Sabha) and Samajwadi Party MP (Rajya Sabha) Ram Gopal Yadav won the Lifetime Achievement awards. John Brittas of the CPI(M) and MP Danish Ali were judged the best “debutant parliamentarians” in the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha respectively.
Shiromani Akali Dal MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal (Lok Sabha) and BJP MP Saroj Pandey (Rajya Sabha) were the “best women parliamentarians”. The awards were given away by Gadkari.
Lokmat Parliamentary Awards, organised by the Lokmat Media Group, are annually given to members of Parliament to “recognise outstanding works of MPs who rose above the rest while serving the nation”. They were instituted in 2017.
The jury was chaired by Dr Subhash C. Kashyap, Former Secretary General, Lok Sabha, with Praful Patel as vice chairman.
Prominent names in the jury were BJP MP C.R. Patil, Congress MP Rajani Patil, Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, DMK MP Tiruchi Siva and BJD MP Bhartruhari Mahtab.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
Also read: Ahead of 2024 polls, biopic on Gadkari talks up the ‘highway minister’s’ PM potential