BENGALURU: Opposition Leader in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjuna Kharge and KPCC president D K Shivakumar slammed veteran Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, who ended his nearly five-decade-old association with the Congress party on Friday.
Azad’s decision to quit the party at a time when everyone needs to work together raises questions about his commitment and also amounts to indirectly cooperating with communal forces, Kharge stated. He said Azad was among senior leaders in the party, and he was dismayed after seeing his resignation letter. The party had given him all positions, even beyond his expectations, he stated.
“Azad set a wrong example by not only betraying the party but also the nation... whatever disagreement he might have had with Rahul Gandhi, he could have spoken to him since he was a member of the Congress Working Committee, the decision-making authority,” Shivakumar said, addressing an emergency press conference at the KPCC office.
Questioning Azad’s integrity, he said, “You were CWC member, AICC general secretary, central minister, chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir. When the Central government abrogated Article 371 in J&K, almost all leaders from the state were kept under house arrest, you escaped by virtue of being the leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha. What more powers and posts could Sonia Gandhi have given you?”
The Congress is fighting the onslaught on constitutional aspirations of minorities and Dalits by communal forces, and is working to unite the country, Kharge said. Azad’s decision to quit at a time the Congress, under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi, is taking out a ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ will weaken the fight against these forces, Kharge said.
Azad should have been a guide and icon to the young, but let down the party and country, Shivakumar said. He claimed his resignation would not affect the party. “All Congress leaders are zero without the party,” he added.