Unlike Prasada, Scindia, many Congress workers weren't served things on a platter: Jairam Ramesh

After Jitin Prasada quit the Congress and joined the BJP, severing his family's three-generation ties with the Congress, Jairam Ramesh said that he is "deeply saddened".

"But for every Jitin Prasada, (Jyotiraditya) Scindia who leave, there are hundreds and hundreds of youngsters in the Congress party who do not have the advantage of birth, who have not had things given to them on a platter," Jairam Ramesh told The Indian Express.

Amid defections of young leaders – Jyotiraditya Scindia and now Jitin Prasada – to the BJP, the Congress leader said, “Incidentally, to both Scindia and Jintin Prasada, the Congress party gave everything at a very young age, but they seem to have felt that the pastures are greener on the other side."

Ramesh further said that he has more respect for a politician who has been in BJP for 40 years than for a Congressman who leaves the party to join BJP.

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“I don’t look upon this as joining ICICI or HDFC bank. You join a political party because of the party’s ideology and programme... For me, a political party is not like a job or employment... (You are) doing it out of a sense of commitment and allegiance to certain values,” he said.

Earlier Congress veteran Kapil Sibal had said that from “aaya ram, gaya ram politics, it has come to "prasada politics now” and asked whether Jitin will get the 'prasada' from the BJP, suggesting that leaders were moving out of the party to serve their political interests.

(With PTI inputs)