‘I will join the BJP when we have black snow in Kashmir’

NEW DELHI: Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, who will be ending his Rajya Sabha stint on Monday after a four-decade-long career in Parliament, spoke to

and about his farewell by the Prime Minister, speculation that he may join the BJP, about being a ‘Hindustani Muslim’, and the thinking behind the letter written by the ‘Group of 23’, among other issues.

I will join the BJP when we have black snow in Kashmir. Why BJP — that’s the day I’ll join any other party. Those who say this or spread these rumours don’t know me. When Rajmata Scindia was the deputy leader of the Opposition, she stood up and said some allegations about me. I got up and I said that I take the allegation very seriously, and on behalf of the government, I would like to suggest a committee which would be chaired by [Atal Bihari] Vajpayee, and would have her and [LK] Advani as members. I said that they should complete the report in 15 days, and whatever punishment they suggest, I’ll accept it. Vajpayeeji came in as I mentioned him, and asked why. When I told him, he stood up and said — I offer my apologies to the House, and also to Ghulam Nabi Azad. Maybe Rajmata Scindia doesn’t know him, but I do.

I had said in AMU that the atmosphere in the country is so vitiated that contrary to the past where 99% of Hindu candidates would invite me to campaign for them to get the Muslim vote, the number of invitations has gone down to 40%. My message was also to the alumni who had gathered there, that it’s their job to be ambassadors, and to bring that India back — the India where I contested in 1979 in the Lok Sabha from Maharashtra, where 95% where Hindus. There was a Janata Party Hindu candidate against me, but I still won.

It’s very difficult. I don’t foresee it in the near future, maybe a few decades. ference between LS and RS. The bills, if not referred to Standing Committee, can always be referred to Select Committee. Lok Sabha members have their constituency on their mind and may take hasty decisions; that’s why the House of Elders will coolly apply its mind, and do what’s good for their country.

We have lost elections earlier — we got only 153 seats in 1977; we lost again in Rajiv Gandhi’s time, getting only 197 seats, in Narasimha Rao’s time we got 140 seats. But losing twice and getting 44 or 52 seats and not even having a Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha was unacceptable to us. Some people feel very bad that we’ve fallen from the sky to even below the ground.

We have come from the organisation, so our accessibility to people is much more than anybody. If people can’t meet someone, they come to us. They gave us a list of things that needed to be corrected. Then we put it all together, and this is what we wanted the leadership to see. It was unfortunate that someone leaked it. That was not our purpose — and I wouldn’t call it a leak as it’s not a state secret; it was how to strengthen the organisation. There’s a big para on Nehru, big para on Rajiv Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi. We didn’t have really a president at the time because the elected president had resigned. And the other president had said only one year and that year was going to end that month itself. That was the reason that we wanted a full-time president, we wanted elected bodies at each level, so that we could rise from the ashes. We wanted to strengthen the organisation and not challenge it.