Himanta Biswa Sarma takes dig at Rahul Gandhi, says India needs non-dynastic leadership that 'respects culture'

Panaji: In a veiled dig at Rahul Gandhi’s elevation as Congress president, Assam Education Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday said the country needed a democratic and non-dynastic leadership that believes in “rich culture and traditions”. [caption id=“attachment_4223971” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Assam Education Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. PTI[/caption] “We need our future generation to believe the principles that are most sustainable principles towards humanity. It is now time to develop that organic leadership which is democratic, which respects our rich culture, traditions and which is not based on dynasty,” the minister said. He was addressing a session on the concluding day of the three-day ‘India Ideas Conclave 2017’, organised by India Foundation. The BJP leader said the future generation can give to the world the leadership which Swami Vivekanand — a 19th Century monk known for propagating Vedanta philosophy — had visualised. “Today we have seen what is happening in the last few months or few days, few weeks….we have seen a particular section of media….a particular section of society is trying to invent and reinvent a particular leader who has come from a dynasty and it is as if that India cannot be India without relying on particular dynasty,” Sarma said. The minister said the “focus” of some sections of media and some intellectuals is more on a family than the country’s culture or heritage. “We need to develop a leadership in the country which does not believe that a particular family or particular dynasty is the answer to India’s problems,” he said. Sarma said a leadership that believes in our “roots, culture, and philosophy” has the answer to the problems faced by people today. “When we talk of our culture and philosophy, there is a section of liberal, so-called secular people who start ridiculing (it),” Sarma said. Observing that one is mocked for talking about culture and heritage by so-called intellectuals, Sarma said time has come to create a strong movement of nationalism based on core value from past. “We must create an eco-system which will produce generation of leaders who think that India can provide leadership to the world,” he said.