Former Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said that over time, sycophancy had taken centre stage in the Grand Old Party.
“The root cause for the Congress’ downfall is that it destroys its own political leaders at the national and state levels by projecting parallel, incapable leadership against them, thus destroying the party from the top to bottom in the process,” the former union minister said in his book, Azaad: An Autobiography, set to be released on April 5 by veteran Congress leader Karan Singh. “Over a period of time sycophancy has taken a centre stage in the party. Sadly, no one wants to hear the bitter truth.”
Azad, 74, who spent five decades in the party before quitting last year and then floating the Democratic Progressive Azad Party, wrote about his experiences with the Gandhi family including Sonia Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in the book.
Azad resigned from the Congress party in August 2022, citing reasons including the entry of Rahul Gandhi, who he said demolished the entire consultative mechanism and side-lined all senior and experienced leaders. He said the party had conceded the political space at the Centre to the BJP and to regional parties in the states. He also slammed the party’s organisational elections as “a farce and a sham.”
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One Man, One Post
He said one reason the Congress slipped is that it failed to give attention to party affairs when it was in the government at the Centre. Organisation leaders such as state party chiefs joined the government and the primacy of the party was lost, he said.
“As party president, Sonia ji was also the chairperson of the National Advisory Council, a cabinet rank, during Dr Manmohan Singh’s tenure as PM. There is no doubt that the NAC under her leadership did a very good job, initiating the right to food security, Right to Information, MGNREGA and many more programmes. However, there was a flipside too,” he wrote.
Azad noted that as Sonia Gandhi was busy with the NAC, she could not devote time to the party. It would have been better if the Congress party had a full-time president or at least a working president who could have given attention to the organisation during that period.
“Even at the state level, the Congress has been repeating a similar mistake over the years, by having the same person as both CM and PCC chief or as a minister and PCC president,” said Azad.
Sarma’s exit
Azad talked about Rahul Gandhi’s lack of experience in handling serious party affairs such as the exit of Himanta Biswa Sarma – now Assam chief minister – in 2015 to join the Bharatiya Janata Party. Azad recalled the day when Rahul Gandhi was told Sarma may quit.
“We pointed out to him that Himanta had the majority of MLAs and would rebel and quit the party. ‘Let him go,’ Rahul said. The meeting was over. I am not sure if Rahul said this to assert himself or because he was ignorant that his decision would have far-reaching consequences, not only in the state of Assam but the entire Northeast,” Azad wrote.
He said he met Sonia Gandhi and apprised her of the new twist in the tale.
“Despite understanding the disastrous consequences that lay ahead, it is rather unfortunate that she did not assert herself as the party president. Instead, she asked me to request Himanta to not rock the boat,” Azad said.
Debacle continues
The Congress ‘unfortunately’ learnt nothing from its past mistakes, which is why it continues to lose in state after state, Azad asserted. The spate of defeats in Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa, Manipur, and Uttar Pradesh in early 2022 is a testament to this.
“There is really no point in blaming X, Y or Z… The party lost because of its own faults – due to its inaction, indecisions, wrong decisions and lack of hard work and initiative,” said Azad.
Article 370
The former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister narrated what happened when Article 370, which accorded special status to the state, was abrogated on August 5, 2019.
“The moment the home minister announced the Centre’s move to repeal Article 370 of the Constitution and bifurcate the state into two UTs, I threw my earphones off and went straight into the well of the House. I called the entire opposition to sit in Dharna. I urged the Congress party people to follow suit and they joined, except Jairam Ramesh who remained seated and did not protest,” he wrote.
Ramesh is currently the All India Congress Committee general secretary in charge of communication.
Azad, who was then the leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha, also said: “I remained seated in the dharna for the next three-four hours. The television cameras were not focused on us. In fact, cameras had been taken off the Opposition benches, so they never showed that I was seated on the floor.”
Whither democracy
Azad explained that the best way to run a party was to have collective leadership.
“A robust and transparent internal democratic system is the only way forward. Therefore, if the Congress has to revive itself, a revamp of its organisation through fresh, genuine membership followed by free, fair and transparent elections at every level is essential,” Azad wrote in his autobiography.
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