Ghulam Nabi Azad, former Union minister, quit the party today calling out Rahul Gandhi for “immaturity” and for “demolishing the consultative mechanism” in the party. In an explosive letter to party chief Sonia Gandhi, the former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister said he has resigned from all positions and the primary membership of the Congress.
Rahul Gandhi insulted all senior party members
Azad said the situation has only worsened since the 2019 elections after Rahul Gandhi stepped down in a huff and not before insulting all the senior party functionaries who have given their lives to the party. The remote control model that destroyed the UPA got applied to Congress
Ghulam Nabi Azad Letter to Sonia
I joined the Indian National Congress in Jammu & Kashmir in the mid-1970s when it was still taboo to be associated with the party given its chequered history in the state from 8′” August 1953 onwards — the arrest of Sheikh Mohammad
Abdullah is the nadir of its political myopia. Inspired from my student days by the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Jawaharlal Lal Nehru, Sardar Patel, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Subhash Chandra Bose, and other leading lights of our freedom struggle. Subsequently at the personal insistence of Late Sh Sanjay Gandhi | agreed to shoulder the responsibility of the Presidentship of the Jammu & Kashmir Youth Congress in 1975-76. I was already serving the Indian National Congress as aBlock General Secretary from 1973-1975 after completing my post-graduation from Kashmir University, Azad mentioned in the letter.
Ghulam Nabi Azad Letter
During the period from 1977 onwards as General Secretary of the Indian Youth Congress (IYC) led by Late Shri Sanjay Gandhi we went from jail to jail along with thousands of Youth Congress leaders and workers. My longest period in
Tihar jail was from 20″ December 1978 to the end of January 1979, for leading a protest rally against the arrest of Mrs. Indira Gandhi from Jama Masjid Delhi to Parliament House. We opposed the Janata Party dispensation and paved the way for the revival and rejuvenation of the party founded by the Late Mrs. Indira Gandhi in the January of 1978. Within three years as a consequence of that heroic struggle the Indian National Congress stormed back into power in 1980.
After the tragic death of a youth icon, I took over as the National President of IYC in 1980. As President, I had the privilege of inducting your husband Late Shri Rajiv Gandhi into the Indian Youth Congress as a Member of the National
Council on the first death anniversary of Late Shri Sanjay Gandhi on 23″ June . Subsequently, Late Shri Rajiv Gandhi took over the leadership of the IYC in a Special Session of IYC held in Bangalore on 29″ & 30″ December of that
year (1981) again under my Presidentship.
I have had the honor of serving as a Union Minister in Late Smt. Indira Gandhi’s, Late Sh Rajiv Gandhi’s, Late Sh. PV Narasimha Rao’s and Dr. Manmohan Singh’s governments respectively from 1982 till 2014. I have also had the opportunity of serving as a General Secretary in the AICC with every President of the Indian national Congress since the mid-1980s.
Ghulam Nabi Azad quits Jammu Kashmir Congress campaign
I was a Member of the Congress Parliamentary Board headed by your late husband and then Congress President Sh. Rajiv Gandhi till his tragic assassination in May 1991 and later with Sh PV Narasimha Rao till the latter decided not to reconstitute the Congress Parliamentary Board in October 1992.
| have also been a Member of the Congress Working Committee continuously for nearly four decades both in an elected and a nominated capacity. I have been the AICC General Secretary Incharge of every state and Union Territory of the country at one point of time or the other over the last thirty-five years. I am happy to state that INC won 90% of the states that I was in charge from time to time.
I am recounting all these years of selfless service just to underscore my life long association with this great institution that I also served recently as the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha for 7 years. I have spent every working moment of my adult life in the service of the Indian National Congress at the cost
of my health and family.
While undoubtedly as the President of the Indian National Congress you played a sterling role in the formation of both the UPA -1 and UPA-2 government’s. However, one of the major reasons for this success was that as President you heeded the wise counsel of senior leaders, besides trusting their judgement and delegating powers to them.
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.
All senior and experienced leaders were sidelined and new coterie of inexperienced sycophants started running the affairs of the Party.
One of the most glaring examples of this immaturity was the tearing up of a government ordinance in the full glare of the media by Shri Rahul Gandhi. The said ordinance was incubated in the Congress Core Group and subsequently unanimously approved by the Union Cabinet presided over by the Prime Minister of India and duly approved even by the President of India. This ‘childish’ behavior completely subverted the authority of the Prime Minister and Government of India. This one single action more than anything else contributed significantly to the defeat of the UPA Government in 2014 that was at the receiving end of a campaign of calumny and insinuation from a combination of the forces of the right wing and certain unscrupulous corporate interests.
“Worse still the ‘remote control model’ that demolished the institutional integrity
— Ghulam Nabi Azad
of the UPA government now got applied to the Indian National Congress. While
you are just a nominal figurehead all the important decisions were being taken
by Shri Rahul Gandhi or rather worse his security guard’s and PA’s.”
Azad’s resignation comes months after another key member of G-23 Kapil Sibal snapped his ties with the party and crossed over to the Samajwadi Party camp, adding to the mounting list of crossovers in recent months and amplifying the perception of negativity about the grand old party.
Azad was the Union Health Minister during UPA-2 era. In June 2014, after the National Democratic Alliance won a majority in the Lok Sabha and formed the Union government, Azad was appointed as the leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha.