Nayantara Sahgal, niece of Jawaharlal Nehru, speaks at BLF

The Indian National Congress should have no truck with the dynasty in the future to remain relevant, Nayantara Sahgal, writer, author, political commentator, who is also a member of the Nehru family, said here on Saturday.

She was participating in a panel discussion at the Bangalore Literature Festival on a recent biography of her by Ritu Menon titled Out of Line: A personal and political biography .

She said the Congress was a democratic organisation with a galaxy of leaders which had a grassroots approach, never a top-down model. She said the Congress was reduced to this by her first cousin the former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who ensured familial succession within the party. She said that while she respected and credited Sonia Gandhi for the revival of the Congress, she was critical of Rahul Gandhi.

On Rahul Gandhi

She said the Congress vice-president was incapable of being in politics. He had failed miserably and had repeatedly expressed his unwillingness to be in politics.

Ms. Sehgal commented that she never thought the Congress and the dynasty were indivisible and it was the best way forward for the Congress. Ironically, all the regional parties in the country had resorted to dynastic succession, she lamented. Ms. Sehgal objected to being called a member of the Nehru–Gandhi family and said the dynasty that ruled was the family of Feroze Gandhi and she was a member of the Nehru family.

Commenting on the title of her biography, she said that more than her being out of line with the family, she has always felt it was Ms. Indira Gandhi who was out of line with the family tradition of democratic values and turned into an autocratic leader, who imposed the Emergency.