Congress President Sonia Gandhi has penned a heartfelt tribute to her long-time confidant and associate Ahmed Patel, noting that ever since she took over as party chief, he was at her side as her most trusted colleague. She mourned his loss by saying that his demise has come at a time when the party, Indian politics and public life needed him.
In an obituary to Patel, which was published in the 'National Herald' on Saturday, Gandhi recounted the support he provided her as she took her first steps in politics and became party president.
“I find it impossible to believe that Ahmed Patel is no more,” she begins, and goes on to talk about the close work association that the two had. “Ever since I myself became Congress President, he was at my side as a most trusted colleague, as someone I could always turn to for advice and counsel, as someone who I could depend upon without any questions being asked, to do the right thing by the Congress Party,” she wrote.
She wrote that while Patel has been called a troubleshooter and crisis manager, he was indeed that and much more. “He was a sounding board. He was a confidant. All this makes his untimely passing a matter of the greatest anguish,” she said.
“Ahmed—as I would always call him—had a most genial personality. He remained cool, calm and collected under pressure,” Gandhi wrote, adding that he became a source of great strength to her not just in her position as Congress President but also as Chairperson of the United Progressive Alliance.
She spoke about his ability to reach out to people across the aisle, saying his friendships and appeal cut across political parties. “I am personally aware of how leaders of different parties saw him as someone they could trust and build relationships with,” she said.
Gandhi said Patel was the quintessential organisational man and he preferred to remain one even when the Congress was in power. “Not for him public office, not any publicity, not for him any form of public recognition or applause. He worked quietly but effectively away from the public glare and spotlight. His style of working perhaps enhanced his value and effectiveness,” she wrote.
Paying a tribute to Patel's penchant for remaining behind the scenes and working discreetly, she said people in politics like to be seen and heard, but Patel was one of those rare individuals who preferred to remain in the background and let others take the credit.
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She described him as a man of devout faith, who was very much a family man in the intensely public arena of politics. “Yet, he was a man who gave himself totally to his party and its cause, never exploiting any of the several key positions he held for any selfish purpose. He was a staunch believer in the values of the Constitution and our country’s secular heritage,” she wrote.
“Ahmed has left us, but his memories will live on,” she said, writing that when the history of the Congress since the 1980s is written, her former colleague's name will figure prominently as someone who was central to the party’s achievements.
“We are all destined to depart sometime or the other but Ahmed has been snatched away from us very cruelly at a time when he was most needed. The Congress needed him. Indian politics and public life needed him. We needed him,” Gandhi wrote.
