Amid hyped and even created controversies vis-a-vis sentencing against Rahul Gandhi and his disqualification, a former member of the Manmohan Singh cabinet, Ghulam Nabi Azad, said had the Congress leader not dismissed and thrashed the Ordinance brought by the UPA Government in 2013, he would not have been disqualified today.
“We brought the Ordinance because we knew that one should be ready …..It was a weak cabinet and should have gone ahead by bringing a law and should have stuck by its decision of bringing the law even after Rahul Gandhi dismissed it as nonsense and tore it,” Ghulam Nabi Azad said after the release of his autobiography “Azaad”.
‘khud kiye aapne deewaron mein suraakh, ab koin jhaank rahe hain to shor kyon (You created holes in your own wall, when people are watching through them now, why should anyone raise a voice).
In could be a rather damaging statement against Congress as the election season has just been unleashed, former Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said Rahul Gandhi was personally the ‘reason’ for his exit from Congress party.
“Yes. Not me alone, but at least a few dozen more, both young and old leaders….,” he said, adding, “Once you are in Congress, you are spineless…. you have to get operated”.
It has been reported earlier that Ghulam Nabi Azad, in his memoir, also held Rahul Gandhi responsible for the exit of Himanta Biswa Sarma, present Assam Chief Minister, for his exit from the Congress.
According to Ghulam Nabi Azad, Rahul Gandhi had “mismanaged” the Sarma episode. “After our interaction with Rahul, I met Sonia ji and apprised her of the new twist in the tale. Despite understanding the disastrous consequences that lay ahead, it is rather unfortunate that she did not assert herself as the party president. Instead, she asked me to request Himanta to not rock the boat,'” writes Ghulam Nabi Azad, who now heads the newly floated Democratic Progressive Azad Party.
In his book release function, Ghulam Nabi Azad also said, “It was a wrong thing on the part of the Congress party to keep mum at the time… Rahul Gandhi would have been saved today through that only. The one who tore it, it got applied on him now. He should have realised it then”.
To a question on whether he would rejoin Congress, Ghulam Nabi Azad said, “But, they don’t want people like us. They want those who are fast on Twitter and are claiming that after Bharat Jodo Yatra the party will get 500 seats”.
Ghulam Nabi Azad was also critical of the functioning style of the present Congress leadership vis-a-vis over emphasis given to social media.
“I am 2000 per cent more Congress than those who run (politics) on Twitter. I am 24-carat Congress by conviction, they are not even 18 carat,” he remarked.
Ghulam Nabi Azad has also been critical of PDP in Jammu and Kashmir that in 2002 polls, “Mufti Mehmood whose party came third in the elections with just 16 MLAs, became the CM, while I, despite having the support of 42 MLAs, had to return to national politics”.
“Modi’s statesmanship has Vajpayee glimpses.”
Meanwhile, to a TV channel, Ghulam Nabi Azad said, “It was unbecoming on my part as Leader of the Opposition (Rajya Sabha) not joining any dinner party of PM Narendra Modi in seven years…but PM ignored them”.
He said, on the contrary, PM Modi “behaved as a statesman” and added, “There are occasions in life when one has to behave as a statesman…That day I expected him to abuse me (last day of Azad in Rajya Sabha in February 2021)”.
“He (Modi) remembered only the positive thing about me (in reference to killings of Gujaratis in Jammu and Kashmir when Azad was Chief Minister),” he said. Ghulam Nabi Azad said PM Modi’s appreciation of him (Ghulam Nabi) in 2021 in Rajya Sabha had reminded him of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who after the 1977 elections, had applauded the leadership qualities of Sanjay Gandhi.
Atal Bihari Vajpayee had told Indira Gandhi in Lok Sabha while all senior Congress leaders had deserted her after the emergency, it was due to Sanjay Gandhi and his youth Congress that Indira could come back to power, Azad said.
