Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday accused “dynastic parties” of pushing the country towards a crisis and said this had become a concern for people committed to the Constitution and democracy, taking an apparent dig at the Congress and some regional parties.

Modi was speaking in the Central Hall of Parliament at an event to mark Constitution Day. Over a dozen Opposition parties led by the Congress boycotted the event, accusing the government of flouting the Constitution.

“India is heading towards a kind of crisis, which is a matter of concern for those who have faith in the Constitution and democracy; and this is because of dynastic parties,” Modi said.

He said such parties were present from “Kashmir to Kanyakumari”, taking no names but making his principal target clear.

“Party for the family, by the family... do I need to say more? If a party is run for generations by a family and the entire party system is with a family then that is the biggest problem for a healthy democracy,” the Prime Minister added.

Farmers and their families gather at the Tikri border in Delhi to mark the first anniversary of their movement against the farm laws. PTI Photo

Modi, whose party is accused of being run by a duopoly of himself and Amit Shah, said the spirit of the Constitution gets “wounded” when political parties lose their democratic character. He asked how parties that lose their democratic character can protect democracy.

The Prime Minister sought to distinguish between dynastic parties and dynasties in politics, aware that the BJP too had several dynasts.

He said multiple members of a family joining politics on the basis of “merit” did not make their political party dynastic. “The problem arises when the party is controlled by one family for generations.”

Modi and other BJP leaders have in the past too flagged the issue of dynasty rule to target the Nehru-Gandhis.

President Ram Nath Kovind, Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla too addressed the event, attended mostly by MPs from the BJP and its allies, with just a handful of Opposition members present.

Modi betrayed his annoyance at the boycott, stressing that the event belonged not to any government or party but to all Indians governed by the Constitution. He said his government had faced protests when Constitution Day was first celebrated in 2015.

‘“Why are you doing it (hold the yearly event)? What’s the need?’ They (Opposition) had asked (the government),” Modi alleged.

He added: “The day was meant to offer our respects to B.R. Ambedkar for what he did for the country.”

Outside Parliament, BJP president J.P. Nadda sought to take the political attack further by accusing the Congress and other Opposition parties of “insulting Dr Ambedkar” and terming them “anti-Dalit”.

In the Central Hall, Naidu urged “tolerance towards the people’s mandate”, obliquely chiding the Opposition.

The Modi government in 2015 started marking November 26 as Constitution Day. On this day in 1949 the Constituent Assembly had adopted the Constitution, which came into effect on January 26, 1950.

Modi invoked Mahatma Gandhi while arguing that “duties” were more important than “rights”. He claimed Gandhi had tried to prepare the country for the duties that came with freedom, while the Congress had wrongly focused on “rights”.

Modi has increasingly been emphasising the supremacy of “duty” since coming to power. He recently said that people should chant the mantra of “duty, duty and only duty” for8 the next 25 years.