Senior Congress leader quits party
INDIA’S main opposition party has rejected criticism of its leadership after a veteran leader resigned from the Congress last week.
Ghulam Nabi Azad, 73, resigned from all positions in the Congress, including its primary membership, saying party leader Rahul Gandhi was “immature” and “childish”. Azad also accused the leadership of “foisting a non-serious individual” as its head.
“Unfortunately, after the entry of Rahul Gandhi into politics and particularly after January 2013 when he was appointed as vice-president by you, the entire consultative mechanism which existed earlier was demolished by him,” Azad wrote to Gandhi’s mother and party president, Sonia.
“All senior and experienced leaders were sidelined and the new coterie of inexperienced sycophants started running the affairs of the party,” he alleged.
An alliance led by the Congress lost by a huge margin in the 2014 general election, winning only 44 seats, while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) won 282 seats in India’s Lok Sabha (lower house of parliament).
Congress leader Sachin Pilot said when the party is preparing to take on the “misgovernance” of the BJP government, Azad – a former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister – had not fulfilled his responsibility.
“He (Azad) held various posts for over 50 years and now, when there is a need for the country and the party to raise people’s issues, this was uncalled for,” said Pilot.
He said there was “targeted personal vilification” of Gandhi in Azad’s resignation letter.
The Congress, which is dealing with the fallout of a series of high-profile exits, including that of Kapil Sibal and Ashwani Kumar, attempted to deflect the latest blow by linking Azad’s resignation to the end of his tenure in the Rajya Sabha, India’s upper house of parliament.
In his almost 50 years in politics, Azad has been a twoterm Lok Sabha and a five-term Rajya Sabha member, besides occupying top party positions. He was a minister in all Congress governments since 1982.