Azad’s parting shot

AS a leading member of the G-23 or the group of 23 dissenters, it was only a matter of time before Ghulam Nabi Azad ended his political journey with the Congress. The party has hit back with well-rehearsed talking points over the exit of yet another seasoned leader, but Azad’s parting shot, a five-page lacerating resignation letter to Sonia Gandhi, paints a canvas full of embarrassing operational insights. Whitewashing them will not be easy. His scathing attack on Rahul Gandhi, blaming him for the defeat in the 2014 General Election and the consequent downslide of the party, also calls him out for childish behaviour, immaturity, non-seriousness and for demolishing the consultative mechanism.

The concerns expressed by the former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister, who also served as Union Minister, that the Congress has reached a point of no return, are not his alone. Considering the limited possibility of change in a family-run party, the G-23’s demand two years ago for a complete overhaul of the organisation and a full-time, collective and visible leadership came out as wishful thinking, but the point being made was valid. It was alluded to by Azad in the letter, as he compared the Congress’ functioning with the remote control model that demolished the institutional integrity of the UPA government, where Sonia Gandhi as interim president is the figurehead but all the important decisions are taken by her son, ‘or rather worse, his security guards and personal assistants.’

The leadership question has plagued the Congress ever since Rahul Gandhi resigned as the party chief in May 2019, taking moral responsibility for the debacle in the Lok Sabha elections. A new president is scheduled to be elected soon, and a non-Gandhi is not ruled out even as loyalists pin their hopes on Rahul Gandhi changing his mind and taking over the reins again. As it struggles with internal dynamics, it would do the party good to heed Azad’s advice to undertake a ‘Congress jodo’, and not just a ‘Bharat jodo’, yatra.