After spending nearly 50 years with the Congress, veteran leader Ghulam Nabi Azad announced severing all ties with the grand-old-party in a scathing letter on Friday (August 26).
Azad’s discontentment with Congress became evident when he joined the G-23 rebel group in Jammu last year. He had also showered praise upon Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and hinted at the lack of ‘reality check’ within the Congress.
After being unceremoniously ousted from the disciplinary committee and the party’s list of star campaigners before the 2022 Punjab elections, resignation was on the cards. The last nail in the coffin was perhaps his ‘downgrade’ appointment to 2 committees of the Jammu and Kashmir unit of the Congress on August 17 this year.
Ghulam Nabi Azad quits Congress
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Recommendations and feedback fell on deaf ears: Ghulam Nabi Azad
In his parting note, Ghulam Nabi Azad did not mince any words in holding the Congress high command accountable for the party’s downfall. He squarely blamed Congress scion Rahul Gandhi for single-handedly destroying the consultative mechanism within the party.
Azad remarked that the success of UPA-I and UPA-II was the result of the wise counsel of the senior party leaders, and the trust enshrined in them by Sonia Gandhi.
“However unfortunately after the entry of Shri Rahul Gandhi into politics and particularly after January 2013 when he was appointed as Vice President by you, the entire consultative mechanism which existed earlier was demolished by him,” he lamented.
“Worse still the ‘remote control model’ that demolished institutional integrity of UPA govt now got applied to INC. While,you’re just a nominal figure heard all the important decisions were being taken by Shri Rahul Gandhi or rather worse his security guards & PAs,” GN Azad says.
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“All senior and experienced leaders were sidelined and the new coterie of inexperienced sycophants started running the affairs of the Party,” Azad pointed out.
The veteran leader expressed regret that none of the recommendations, proposed by him during brainstorming sessions in Panchmari (1998), Simla (2033), and Jaipur (2013), were ever implemented by the party’s high command.
“Unfortunately, — these recommendations are lying in the storeroom of the AICC for the past 9 years. Inspite of my repeated reminders in person both to you and the then Vice President Shri Rahul Gandhi from 2013 onwards to implement these recommendations. However, no effort was made to even examine them seriously,” he added.
Childish, non-serious behaviour of Rahul Gandhi
Ghulam Nabi Azad, in his letter, drew attention to the childish, immature and non-serious attitude of Rahul Gandhi towards Congress and national politics. He recounted how the Congress scion tore a government ordinance publically, which was approved by the Union Cabinet and the President of India in 2013.
He emphasised, “This ‘childish’ behaviour completely subverted the authority of the Prime Minister and the Government of India.” Azad claimed that it was the single largest action that changed the perception of Congress in people’s mind, leading to the defeat of the UPA in 2014.
He said that while Sonia Gandhi is the nominal Head of the grand old party, the key decisions are being made by Rahul Gandhi’s personal assistants and security guards. The veteran Congress leader remarked that even in her absence, only a puppet will be appointed as the Congress Chief.
Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad severs all ties with Congress Party pic.twitter.com/RuVvRqGSj5
— ANI (@ANI) August 26, 2022
“The ‘chosen one’ would be nothing more than a puppet on a string. Unfortunately, at the National level, we have conceded the political space available to us to the BJP and state level space to regional parties. This all happened because the leadership in the past 08 years has tried to foist a non-serious individual at the helm of the Party,” he added.
Azad did not lose out on the opportunity of rubbing salt to the Congress’ wounds. He held the Gandhi family responsible for the poor performance of the grand-old-party in elections.
“Under your stewardship since 2014 and subsequently that of Shri Rahul Gandhi, the INC has lost two Lok Sabha elections in a humiliating manner. It has lost 39 out of the 49 assembly elections held between 2014-2022. The Party only won four slate elections and was able to get into a coalition situation in six instances,” he emphasised.
Azad scoffed, “Unfortunately, today, the INC is ruling in only two states and is a very marginal coalition partner in two other slates. Since the 2019 elections the situation in the party has only worsened.
Systematic targeting of senior party leaders
The veteran Congress leader lamented how the party, where he served close to 50 years, targeted him for holding a mirror to the high command.
“In the August of 2020, when I and 22 other senior colleagues including former Union Ministers and Chief Ministers wrote to you to flag the abysmal drift in the Party, the ‘coterie’ chose to unleash its sycophants on us and got us attacked, vilified and humiliated in the crudest manner possible,” he said.
He further added, “In fact on the directions of the coterie that runs the AICC today, my mock funeral procession was taken out in Jammu. Those who committed this indiscipline were feted in Delhi by the General Secretaries of the AICC and Shri Rahul Gandhi personally.”
Ghulam Nabi Azad remarked, “Subsequently, the same coterie unleashed its goondas to physically attack the residence of a former Ministerial Colleague Sh. Kapil Sibal who incidentally was defending you and your kin in the courts of Law for your alleged attacks of omission and commission.”
He also pointed out how Rahul Gandhi abused, insulted and humiliated the senior loyalists of the Congress in a special Congress Working Committee meeting.
Lack of transparency within the Congress
In his parting note, Ghulam Nabi Azad pointed out the lack of transparency in appointments at all levels of the Congress party.
“The entire organizational election process is a farce and a sham. At no place anywhere in the country have elections been held at any level of the organisation. Handpicked lieutenants of the AICC have been coerced to sign on lists prepared by the coterie that runs the AICC siting in 24 Akbar Road,” he remarked.
“The AICC leadership is squarely responsible for perpetrating a giant fraud on the party to perpetuate its hold on the ruins of what once was a national movement that fought for and attained the Independence of India,” he emphasised.
With Ghulam Nabi Azad gone, the Congress is now fighting its last battle for survival.
