In a big blow to the Congress, Ghulam Nabi Azad quits the party; blames Rahul Gandhi

Every leader who has resigned from the Congress party recently has blamed Rahul Gandhi directly or indirectly. The latest case is the exit of veteran Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad from the Congress party. He directly blamed Rahul Gandhi for breaking the Congress party and alleged that there is a coterie culture in the party.

Azad in the resignation letter said, The ‘remote control model’ is now applied to the Indian National Congress While you are just a nominal figurehead all the important decisions were being taken by Rahul Gandhi and his coterie. Congress has lost both the will and ability under the tutelage of the coterie that runs the AICC to fight for what is right in India.”

The same sentiments have been made by another congress spokesperson who also left the Congress party just a few days ago, Jaiveer Shergill. Shergill said that there is a Rahul Gandhi faction that waits for PM Modi to make mistake and then they counter him. This point is very crucial and many former leaders of Congress had echoed the same sentiment. He said, “People still do not know what is the Indian National Congress’s stand on Article 370, what was its stand on Ayodhya, what was the particular stand, the nuances of the Agniveer scheme, the killing of Kashmiri Pandits.”

Reacting to the resignation of Azad, Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh said, “A man who has been treated with the greatest respect by the Congress leadership has betrayed it by his vicious personal attacks which reveals his true character. GNA’s DNA has been Modi-fied.”

Former Chief Minister and National Conference (NC) president, Dr. Farooq Abdullah told the media that Azad may not have been getting the right treatment earlier. Such kinds of things have happened before also. The Congress will come back stronger and the country needs a strong opposition.

Azad has also complained about his humiliation in a CWC meeting. He said, “The only crime committed by the 23 senior leaders who wrote that letter out of concern for the party is that they pointed out both the reasons for the weaknesses in the party and the remedies thereof. Unfortunately, instead of taking those views on board constructively and cooperatively we were abused, humiliated, insulted, and vilified in a specially summoned meeting of the extended CWC meeting.”

Senior Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit wrote a letter to Ghulam Nabi Azad and said, “Your resignation gave me a sense of dismay, betrayal. We had raised the banner of reform, not the banner of revolt. It was imp to remain inside the party. INC will be much weaker without GN Azad, but the Azad who authored the G23 letter, not the one who authored this resignation.”

In wake of senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad’s resignation from the party on Friday, several senior party leaders, including former legislators, of the party in Jammu and Kashmir also quit.

These included G.M. Saroori, Haji Abdul Rashid, Muhammad Amin Bhat, Gulzar Ahmad Wani, and Choudhary Muhammad Akram.

Another senior Congress leader, Salman Nizami said: “Azad Sahib has made reasons for his resignation clear in his 5-page resignation letter.

“I have been a ground-level worker of the Congress for the last 15 years. We have all resigned from Congress in support of Azad Sahib.”

In the days to come more Congress leaders from J&K are likely to resign after which Azad is expected to launch a new party that would be headed by him and would participate in the Assembly elections.

(With IANS inputs)

-INDIA NEWS STREAM