During a congressional hearing on his public attack on Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi after he resigned on August 26, Ghulam Nabi Azad revealed why he chose to do so. He argued that he was forced to respond after Congress launched a tirade at a rally in Jammu’s Bhaderwah on Thursday.
It has been nearly five decades since the 73-year-old politician served in Congress, including stints in both houses of Parliament and key positions such as chief minister of J&K and minister of finance.
Ghulam Nabi Azad observed, “People ask me why I spoke out against Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. If you paid attention, I explained everything in my letter. I was quiet for three days. Initially, I didn’t say anything. However, when missiles started to be fired from their side, I said in Islam and politics it is written that you should defend yourself if someone attacks you. A missile was fired at me. I shot it down with a .303 (rifle). I would have vanished if I fired a ballistic missile”. During the J&K Assembly elections, he will launch his own political party.
The resignation letter of Ghulam Nabi Azad
Ghulam Nabi Azad argued in his five-page letter to Rahul Gandhi that as Congress vice president, Rahul Gandhi demolished the entire consultative process. He lamented that the party’s inexperienced sycophants had replaced the party’s senior and experienced leaders. He reminded the Wayanad MP of Rahul Gandhi’s tearing up of the UPA ordinance in full view of the media, in order to highlight his “immaturity” and “childish behavior.”
Admonishing Rahul Gandhi and the Congress leadership for the state of affairs, he called the entire election process a “sham.” In order to preserve its grip on the ruins of a national movement that fought for and attained independence, the AICC leadership has perpetrated a giant fraud on the party. “Is the Indian National Congress deserving of this in the 75th year of Indian Independence?” it is a question the AICC leadership must ask. Essentially, a puppet president, not a Gandhi, was sought to be propped up by him.