Peerzada Masrat Shah
Former Union minister Ghulam Nabi Azad resigned from the Congress last month. He launched a scathing attack in a letter to party chief Sonia Gandhi.
Azad is always playing his cards to remain in limelight .So dividing Jammu and Kashmir Provincial Congress Committee to give benefit to the opponents. He always gave patronage to his dissidents for his selfish ends۔ Is this Ghulam a black dot in the political history of India? If he was sidelined, what was the reason? Is He is really Azad or is he still a Ghulam?
There had been a growing distance between former Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad and the top leadership of the party for the past two years even though their separation officially took place in August.
One of the four G23 leaders of the CWC at that time, was accused of mounting pressure on Sonia Gandhi when she was unwell and was hospitalised. G23’s quest for reforms got overshadowed by questions over the rebels’ motivation and instead, the CWC issued a terse warning: “No one will be, or can be, permitted to undermine or weaken the party and its leadership at this juncture.
When Azad was conferred Padma Bhushan in January this year, it divided the Congress. The party rebels and even former Congress members congratulated Azad and criticised the Congress.
Azad joined the Indian National Congress in Jammu & Kashmir in mid 1970s when it was still a taboo to be associated with the party given its chequered history in the state from 8th August 1953 onwards — the arrest of Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah being the nadir of it’s political myopia.
He was already serving the Indian National Congress as a Block General Secretary from 1973-1975۔
During the period from 1977 onwards as General Secretary of the Indian Youth Congress (IYC), led by Late Shri Sanjay Gandhi, went from jail to jail, along with thousands of Youth Congress leaders and workers.
It was his longest period in Tihar jail from 20 December, 1978, to end of January 1979, for leading a protest rally against the arrest of late Indira Gandhi from Jama Masjid Delhi to Parliament House. He along with his party members opposed the Janata Party dispensation and paved the way for the revival and rejuvenation of the party founded by Late Mrs Indira Gandhi in the January of 1978.
Within three years as a consequence of that heroic struggle, the INC stormed back into power in 1980.
He had the honor of serving as a Union Minister & also had the opportunity of serving as a General Secretary in the AICC٫ he was a Member of the Congress Parliamentary Board too۔
He was a Member of the Congress Working Committee continuously for nearly four decades.He had been the AICC General Secretary In-charge of every state and Union Territory of the country at one point of time or the other over the last thirty-five years۔
His resignation was just a thirst of greed and power. Ghulam Nabi Azad, in his first public meeting in Jammu after quitting Congress, announced to launch his own political party that will focus on the restoration of full statehood. Speaking at a public meeting at Dak Bunglow in Baramulla in north Kashmir, Azad said his new party will be ‘Azad’ (free) like his name, in its ideology and thinking.
Early History
Ghulam Nabi Azad (born on 7th March 1949) is an Indian politician who served as Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha between 2014 to 2021. He also served as the Chief Minister of erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir from 2005 to 2008.Ghulam Nabi Azad was born in a village named Soti of Gandoh tehsil (Bhalessa) in the formerly princely state of Jammu and Kashmir’s Doda district received his Bachelor’s of Science degree from G.G.M. Science College. Furthermore, He also completed his Master’s in Zoology from the University of Kashmir, Srinagar in 1972.
