Ghulam Nabi Azad resigns from Congress, slams leadership

Ghulam Nabi Azad in his resignation letter to party chief Sonia Gandhi accused the party leadership of perpetrating a giant fraud on Congress.

Delhi:Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad has resigned from all positions of Congress including primary membership of the party. Taking potshots at the Congress leadership, Azad, in his resignation letter to party chief Sonia Gandhi, said before starting 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' the party leadership should have undertaken a 'Congress Jodo Yatra'.

"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," wrote Azad in his resignation letter to Sonia Gandhi.

"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," stated Azad in a five-page resignation letter.

The veteran leader in his resignation letter has blamed the tearing of ordinance by Rahul Gandhi in September 2013 as a 'reason for the defeat of the party'. "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 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." Azad said in the letter.

He alleged that 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". Azad also mentioned his association of 50 long years with the party in the letter.

He said that he was the Congress Parliamentary Board member headed by Rajiv Gandhi and PV Narasimha Rao till Rao decided not to reconstitute the Congress Parliamentary Board in October 1992. He said he has been a member of the Congress Working Committee continuously for nearly four decades both in an elected and a nominated capacity and as the AICC General Secretary In-charge of every state and Union Territory of the country at one point of time or the other over the last 35 years.

"I am happy to state that INC won 90 per cent of the states that he was in charge from time to time," he said. The veteran leader said he has done selfless service just to underscore his life long association with this great institution that he has also served recently as the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha for seven years.

"I joined the Indian National Congress in Jammu & Kashmir in mid-1970s when it was still a taboo to be associated with the party given its chequered history in the state from 8 August 1953 onwards the arrest of Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah being the nadir of its political myopia," he said.

Azad stated that as the National President of IYC in 1980 he had the privilege of inducting Rajiv Gandhi into the Indian Youth Congress as a member of the National Council. "I have also had the opportunity of serving as a General Secretary in the AICC with every President of the Indian National Congress since the mid-1980s," he added.

Azad, a member of the G-23 group of leaders who sought change in the Congress leadership and organization, alleged that the 23 leaders who wrote to the party leadership to point out organizational weakness were abused, insulted, humiliated and vilified.

He further alleged that elections were not being held at any level of the organization, adding that the situation in Congress has reached a point of no return and now "proxies" are being propped to take over leadership of the party.

Accusing the Congress leadership of perpetrating a "giant fraud", Azad alleged that said handpicked lieutenants of the AICC were coerced to sign on lists prepared by the coterie that runs the organisation.

Azad's resignation delivers the latest blow to the Congress which has been reeling under the exit of several senior leaders including Kapil Sibal, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Jaiveer Shergil, Jitin Prasada, amongst others. The development comes weeks after Azad declined to take up the post of Chairman of the campaign committee citing "health reasons". (with Agency inputs)