Factors that revived Congress in the past don't exist today: Ghulam Nabi Azad
Aditi Tandon
New Delhi, April 4
Veteran leader Ghulam Nabi Azad has said factors that led to the Congress’ revival in the 1980s and 1990s do not exist today, for the Congress has lost the firepower, and sense of sacrifice and dedication needed for electoral revival.
PM Modi a great listener
Throughout my speeches as the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, I found PM Narendra Modi to be a great listener. Not even once did he rebut my arguments or speak against me, inside or outside Parliament. — Ghulam Nabi Azad, Veteran leader
In a no-holds-barred interview to The Tribune on the eve of the release of his autobiography titled “Azaad”, the former Congress veteran said the root cause for the organisation’s downfall was the fact that it destroyed popular leaders by projecting incapable nominees, and encouraged sycophancy.
“Many Congress leaders don’t seem to grasp the gravity of the situation. They argue that the party had lost before and bounced back in 1977-80, and post the setbacks in 1996, 1998 and 1999. They are right, except that in the past nine years, there has been no sign of bouncing back. Never before had the Congress faced the Lok Sabha routs like it did in 2014 and 2019, in which the party managed to win only 44 and 52 seats, respectively,” said Azad, who was called a “BJP agent” for leading the ‘G23’ that wrote a letter to then party chief Sonia Gandhi in August 2020 to seek an urgent course correction amid party’s steep electoral decline.
“I was deeply hurt. Some of those criticising us had dumped the Congress in 1977-79. They said we kicked the ladder we used to go up. The fact is we were the ladder others used to climb up,” said Azad, who resigned from the Congress on August 26 last year after losing the post of the general secretary, the national campaign committee membership after 40 years and the Rajya Sabha berth.
Drawing comparisons between late Indira Gandhi and the Congress under Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, Azad said the narrative that “Indira Gandhi was a dictator is nonsense”.
“As the Indian Youth Congress president, I refused to appoint two leaders Indiraji had recommended in writing. I did it because they did not fit the criteria. Indiraji called and asked me to keep it up. She told Rajiv Gandhi that Azad’s refusal did not mean disrespect. In contrast, when we wrote to the Congress president in 2020 about the crisis in the party, I was shown the door,” says Azad.
His book chronicles his role in the political launch of Rajiv Gandhi and in convincing Sonia Gandhi to accept the Congress presidency in 1998.
Lamenting that the Congress had “replaced fighter jets with handcarts in state after state, including Punjab”, Azad said reasons that led to Congress victory in 1980 did not exist today.
“One of the factors was Indiraji’s charismatic leadership. She reached out to people rather than blame others for her loss. Indiraji and Sanjay Gandhi were available 14-16 hours daily for workers and leaders. Today, even CWC members have to wait for months to meet the leadership. Besides, the Congress now has more competition from regional parties than national outfits,” noted Azad.
The former party veteran identifies the 1963 Kamaraj Plan (which asked top CMs to resign and work for the party following the humiliating 1962 war with China) as the initiation of Congress’ decline.
“The Kamaraj Plan initiated the weakening of the Congress. Several popular CMs, including Biju Patnaik, SK Patil, Partap Singh Kairon and Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad, quit. Gradually, stalwarts were replaced with nominees across states. Mass leaders and CMs HN Bahuguna (UP), Jagannath Mishra (Bihar), JP Patnaik (Orissa) were marginalised. The result was the Congress could never revive in these states,” explains Azad.
