Dr B Thomas (Special correspondent)
Ghulam Nabi Azad is a veteran politician that has spent his entire adult life in tandem with the political philosophies of the Indian National Congress and has been right alongside the national party since the controversial episode of Emergency in 1975.
His resignation unsurprisingly came along on the 26th of August 2022 after a 52-year association with his parent party.
Congress party’s existence since the rise of the Hindu nationalist party, Bharatiya Janata Party, has been in a tight spot since the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
Ghulam Nabi Azad,as a premier member of the G-23,wrote a letter to the party president,Ms Sonia Gandhi,in August 2020 proposing a systemic change by hosting a democratic party election to choose the next leader representative.
This was a consequence of the party losing its turf in Amethi from the hands of the then-party president, Rahul Gandhi,to television actress-turned-politician,Smriti Irani.
Since then,the relationship between Mr Azad and the party grasped at straws until it reached a point of no return.
The only speculation that holds water in this debate is that Congress is vehemently trying to walk the path to recruiting young talents.
Be it former JNU President Kanhaiya Kumar and Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani,Congress has chosen to buoy the political faces of the urban middle-class prodigies.
Too bad that unlike the senior party leaders of the NDA who chose to step aside with graciousness and put their trust entirely in the leadership of Mr Modi,senior politicians like Ghulam Nabi Azad have been trying to bend the truth and taking Congress from the path of true righteousness.
The Snowball Effect of Ghulam’s Career in INC: Ghulam’s Decisive Stab in the Back After a Series of Political Opportunities since the 1980s.
The young Ghulam Nabi Azad was impressive from day 1 of his political career.In 1973,the collegiate began his political career as the secretary to the Block Congress Committee and soon was nominated in the Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh in a professional capacity as the President two years later.
He egged on to become the President of the All-India Youth Congress in 1980.
He was elected from Maharashtra’s Washim during the seventh Lok Sabha election (1980) and was pursued and selected subsequently for the second time during the eighth Lok Sabha election in 1984.
In the former case,he served as the Deputy Minister in the Ministry of Law,Justice,and Company Affairs in 1982.He also served as a member of the Rajya Sabha from 1990 until 1996.
Under Narasimha Rao’s Government,Azad served the nation-state in his capacity as the minister of Civil Aviation as well as Parliamentary Affairs.
The Congress Party had his back when he availed of the dawning opportunity of serving two subsequent terms as a member of Rajya Sabha from 1996-2002 and then again from 2002-2008 from Jammu and Kashmir.
His second term was further augmented when he became the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir in 2006 for two years.
Under the second Dr Manmohan Singh’s United Progressive Alliance Govt,Mr Azad was sworn in to serve as a Union Minister to the Ministry of Health.
His successful career as the Health Minister of India was driven by his mission to provide nationwide health facilities in both rural and urban settings.
His leadership saw the government’s efforts to care for the slum dwellers that represented the urban poor.
To provide directives for population control, he stressed pushing the legal marriage age to 25-30.
His unfazed political speeches spoke of the importance of electricity and television entertainment in rural areas.
Rise of BJP Equated to Troubled Relationship Between Azad and the INC
The 2014 Lok Sabha elections saw Mr Modi as the only alternative and the people of India entrusted a majority of their votes and unwavering support in favour of the National Democratic Alliance.
This meant Congress took a back seat and Sonia Gandhi,the party leader,appointed Ghulam Nabi Azad as the representative of the opposition to the NDA government.
The first stroke of losing ties between Mr Azad and the INC can be speculated as the moment in history when the senior members of the battle-wearing Congress Party sought to propose a systemic change or an overhaul in 2020.
With Congress frequenting political failures and descending into a free fall, the G-23 wanted an active re-jigging of the top leadership and the letter reeked of senior leaders’ dissent in core operational functions of the party.
As this news of the internal struggle of the Congress flared the national news media channels and dailies,Sonia Gandhi’s efforts to accommodate their demands seemed to be tokenistic and many members of the G-23 continued to be dissatisfied with the party leader’s response.
Many suspects that this brawl to be the beginning of the end for Azad.
Azad Calling it Quits With INC in August 2022: A Happenstance or a Fortunate Coincidence?
Congress was trying to find its broken pieces to make their picture whole again and Azad’s flattering popularity in Jammu and Kashmir accounted for the Party’s decision to appoint him as the Chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir Campaign Committee.
Azad didn’t take more than just a few hours to forward his resignation to the proposed post citing serious health reasons.
However,the speculations hint at something else entirely.It is not a surprise that taking the proposed title will mean a demotion for Azad.
His then-existing role was serving as one of the members of the All India Congress Committee and taking on the role newly entrusted by Sonia Gandhi can be construed as a huge career step down for him.
While most of the senior Congress members blamed the party and construed such attempts as being disrespectful efforts hurled at them, calling the same as injustice being meted out to them can be considered a bit of a stretch.
While Congress was seen to encourage young minds to restructure the political predicaments of the party,Azad’s blatant refusal to hold any position as dictated in the resignation letter dated the 26th of August 2022 can be seen as a brutal betrayal during the most critical times of INC.
Azad’s open stance to delineate away from Congress hints at the intolerance shown by some of the most experienced politicians and consultants.
Furthermore,Mr Azad receiving the Padma Bhushan Award also raises many interesting questions about his nature of association with the opposition.
However,to break it out to the readers,he has blatantly disregarded every ounce of rumour to join the BJP by reiterating the obvious logical flaw by saying, “How can a Kashmiri join BJP?”.
Congress understands the importance to flag its name with young vibrant faces and it is time for seniors like Ghulam Nabi to graciously take the backseat for the political wellbeing of the party.
The political game of representation demands a dynamic shift and young leaders of substance are the reality of modern India.
