Senior Congress leader AK Antony on Thursday described his son Anil Antony’s decision to join the BJP as deeply painful.
Calling his son’s move a political betrayal while speaking to media persons in Thiruvananthapuram hours after his son joined the saffron party, Antony said “This is the first and last time that I’ve spoken about Anil’s decision,” he said.
The senior Congress leader asserted that he will remain a Congressman till his last breath. “I’m approaching the last years of my life. I’m 82 now. I don’t know how long I will live. I don’t wish to live a longer life. But it doesn’t matter, till the day I die, I’ll be a Congressman,” he said Antony.
Antony further said he is always with the Nehru family and will raise his voice against BJP’s destructive policies till his last breath.
He said the Nehru family treated all Indians as equals regardless of caste, religion, language, creed, colour or caste since the time of freedom struggle. Even today, those family members are fearlessly and uncompromisingly fighting for the protection of the fundamental values of the Indian Constitution despite persecution, he added.
“After the Narendra Modi Government came to power in 2014, the country’s fundamental policies have been systematically eroded. Following the BJP’s  election victory in 2019, the country moved towards disunity instead of secularism and unity in diversity,” he lamented.
Anil Antony, who was a Congress leader from Kerala, quit the party in January following a row over BBC’s documentary on the 2002 Gujarat riots and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. At a function held at BJP headquarters in New Delhi, Union minister Piyush Goyal handed him BJP membership.
Anil has been very harsh on the Congress party in his comments after his resignation from the party. Responding to Congress party’s protests following Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification from the Lok Sabha, he asked the party to ‘stop focusing on the gaffes and bloopers of an individual and work on the issues if it wants to survive.
Coming out against Anil Antony, KPCC president K Sudhakaran said he has betrayed his own father and the Congress on the same day Judas betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver coin. “Apart from being the son of AK Antony, Anil Antony is nobody in Congress. He does not even have the tradition of struggling for Congress,” he said.