Ghulam Nabi Azad interview: 'Rahul sidelined senior leaders'

"I do not have anything against him as a person, but politics is not his cup of tea"

Ghulam Nabi Azad | Sanjay Ahlawat Ghulam Nabi Azad | Sanjay Ahlawat

Q/ When did you decide that you cannot continue in the Congress?

A/ It had been building up. When Rahul Gandhi became an MP in 2004, Mrs [Sonia] Gandhi’s consultations with senior leaders reduced drastically. She began consulting Rahul more. Over time, senior Congress leaders were sidelined and felt isolated because Rahul never had any interest in meeting anybody. There was a blanket rule on not entertaining people above 60. Mrs Indira Gandhi worked with three generations. Credibility and experience are more important than age. Of my age, I am the first person to leave. All the others who have quit are young leaders belonging to the so-called Team Rahul.

Q/ So your angst is basically about Rahul’s style of functioning.

A/ I do not have anything against him as a person. But politics is not his cup of tea.

Q/ The G23 letter sent in August 2020 is believed to have only widened the divide.

A/ Things were not moving for the past nine years. Recommendations made to revive the party were gathering dust. Then, I wrote a letter in my individual capacity and then the G23 letter was sent. A special virtual meeting of the Congress Working Committee was convened. And every leader, starting with Rahul Gandhi, attacked us. We were accused of writing the letter in consultation with the BJP.

Aren’t those people whose decisions are leading to the Congress’s decline helping the BJP realise its dream of making India Congress-mukt?

In December 2020, Mrs Gandhi called us for a meeting. It lasted seven hours. At the very outset, I made it clear that none of us was after any position. We suggested that the star campaigners committee be formed much in advance of the state elections due five months later. We asked to be put on the panel and said we would make our own arrangements for the campaign trips. The committee was formed only after the elections were announced. And, after 42 years, I was dropped from the list!

Q/ It is said that you felt humiliated by the manner in which committees were set up for Jammu and Kashmir.

A/ The committees were formed without my consent. I do not know about these 80 people in the committees. Yes, I had given four names for the PCC president’s post, but who was chosen? The youngest on the list. The only criterion that appeared to work for him was his age. I was already a member of the political affairs committee headed by Mrs Gandhi at the central level. And then I was made a member of the PAC in the state. I was made a member of a committee headed by a leader who came from the PDP (Peoples Democratic Party) just three or four years back. This was utmost humiliation. This was the last straw that broke the camel’s back.

Q/ It is alleged that you are bitter because you were not renominated to the Rajya Sabha.

A/ When I first wrote to the Congress president in 2020, I was the leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha. When the G23 letter was sent, I still had one year to go as a Rajya Sabha member. So, that was not a consideration. My only concern was the decline of the party.

Q/ You have been accused of acting at the BJP’s behest.

A/ I did not hug the prime minister. Aren’t those people whose decisions are leading to the Congress’s

decline helping the BJP realise its dream of making India Congress-mukt (free)?

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