Ghulam Nabi Azad quits Congress; targets Rahul's 'childish behaviour'
Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad on Friday (August 26) resigned from all party positions including the primary membership, severing his 50-year-old ties with the grand old party.
In a five-page letter to Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Azad said he was quitting the party with a “heavy heart” and said the party should have undertaken “Congress Jodo exercise” before starting “Bharat Jodo Yatra”.
Also read: Ghulam Nabi Azad jolt has J&K Congress in turmoil
“The Indian National Congress has lost both the will and the ability under the tutelage of the Coterie that runs the AICC to fight for what is right for India. In fact, before starting Bharath Jodo Yatra the leadership should have undertaken a Congress Jodo exercise across the country,” Azad wrote.
“It is therefore with great regret and an extremely leaden heart that I have decided to sever my half-a century-old association with the Indian National Congress and hereby resign from all my positions including the primary membership of the Indian National Congress,” he added.
Azad, part of the G-23 group that sought changes in the party, targeted Rahul Gandhi and said he “demolished” the entire consultative mechanism of the party.
“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,” he said.
‘Rahul’s childish behaviour’
Azad termed Rahul’s behaviour as “childish” for tearing up of an ordinance during the UPA government and blamed it for the Congress-led alliance’s defeat in 2014.
“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’ behaviour 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,” he said.
‘Farce’ election process
Azad said the election process in the Congress is “a farce and a sham”.
“Unfortunately, the situation in the Congress party has reached such a point of no return that now ‘proxies’ are being propped up to take over the leadership of the Party. This experiment is doomed to fail because the Party has been so comprehensively destroyed that situation has become irretrievable. Moreover, 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 8 years has tried to foist a non-serious individual at the helm of the 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 has been coerced to sign on lists prepared by the coterie that runs the AICC sitting in 24 Akbar Road,” he wrote.
Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said Azad’s resignation will be a “body blow” to the Congress.
“Long rumoured to be in the offing but a body blow to the Congress none the less. Perhaps the senior most leader to quit the party in recent times, his resignation letter makes for very painful reading. It’s sad, and quite scary, to see the grand old party of India implode,” he tweeted.
Here’s Azad’s five-page letter.
