Ghulam Nabi Azad praises PM Modi for being frank about his past as tea-seller
JAMMU: Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad on Sunday praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying he speaks frankly about his past as a tea-seller and does not try to hide his background from the world.
Addressing a function by Gujjar Desh Charitable Trust here, the former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister said a person should be proud of his roots.
I admire several things about a number of leaders... I am from a village and I am proud of it. A big leader, our prime minister, says he is from a village, he used to sell tea.
"We may have political differences, but at least he doesn't hide his reality," the opposition leader said.
Modi had recently profusely praised Azad, who was the Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha, during the Congress MP's farewell in the Upper House.
An emotional prime minister had recalled how Azad had reached out to him in 2006 after tourists from Gujarat were killed in a terrorist attack and had said the person who will replace the Congress leader will find it tough to match his contribution.
Azad's remarks come a day after he and other 'G-23' dissident leaders, who have been pressing for a leadership change and organisational overhaul in the Congress, gathered on one stage at an event here and said the party is weakening.
In a brief interaction with media persons, Azad did not agree with the suggestion that the presence of senior party leaders at a function here on Saturday was a show of strength to convey a message to the party high command.
The leaders, including Anand Sharma, Kapil Sibal, Manish Tewari and Raj Babbar, were part of the group which had triggered a storm in the party last year with their letter to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, expressing unhappiness over its functioning and demanding a full-time party president.
I have returned after a gap of one-and-a-half years. Before the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic (in March last year), there was a budget and winter session. There was a long demand that a function be organised, he said.