Azad is not Ghulam

An uncalled tweet by Jairam Ramesh, Chief Whip of the Congress in the Rajya Sabha casting needless aspersions on his senior colleague, Ghulam Nabi Azad, after his name figured on the list of Padma awardees, has stirred a fresh controversy within the grand old party.
Jairam’s one liner, “He is Azad and not Ghulam” is being described in party circles as a case of premature articulation. Jairam is known for his one-liners and in this instance chose to lash out at Azad after the same honour was turned down by former West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya.
However, since the tweet, multiple leaders including Dr Karan Singh, Anand Sharma, Kapil Sibal, Ashwani Kumar, Manish Tewari to name a few have come out against Jairam. They are all of the opinion that the award was in recognition of Azad’s long service to public life and thus should be celebrated and not criticised.
The Congress high command, by maintaining total silence on the issue, has indirectly communicated its view. Azad is the leader of the G-23 group, which has been urging the central leadership to initiate corrective measures within the party to make it more meaningful and in sync with the latest political situation in the country.
Azad is amongst the senior most Congress leaders and has served the party in multiple capacities from the time he was chosen by Sanjay Gandhi to be the president of the Indian Youth Congress. He has been general secretary in charge of virtually every state and is amongst a select group of leaders who has served under every Congress president since Indira Gandhi.
In addition, he has headed several ministries and has the distinction of being the only Congress Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, after the Abdullahs and Muftis strengthened their stranglehold over the electoral politics of the erstwhile border state, now a union territory.
He has also immensely benefited from his association with the party which after it lost power in 2014 gave him the position of the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, which entailed a Cabinet rank in view of the numbers.
However, he has been drifting away from the current leadership because many believe that he was not granted a Rajya Sabha, which he wanted badly to prolong his political career. When Prime Minister Narendra Modi showered lavish praise on him on 9 February last year, to mark the occasion of his retirement from the Upper House, many of his opponents within the party viewed it as an indication of his next step.
There have been several unsubstantiated reports which suggest that he has been having frequent meetings with the BJP biggies, who may have visualized a greater role for him in the national scheme of things. Azad has always been a nationalist and his commitment to the country has never been in doubt. If he decides to change the colour of his politics at this stage of his career, after having a distinguished innings in the Congress, it shall disappoint many of his admirers.
To prove that he was not a rootless leader as some of his colleagues have been trying to propagate, Azad has been able to demonstrate that a large number of significant functionaries from the Valley preferred him over any other Congress leader from the region. His confrontation with the high command on matters of reviving the party, has sparked off speculation that he could be a candidate for an important constitutional position in the country.
Like Pranab Mukherjee before him, who in an interview in 2010 to Priya Sahgal, then with India Today, had indicated that he would never serve in a government which would be headed by Rahul Gandhi, Azad too seems to have his priorities clear. Mukherjee had forced the Congress to support him for the President’s position in 2012 and it is possible, that the Congress may not be able to oppose him if he is chosen for an important post in the future.
Azad has been a perceptive and astute politician who understands power politics like very few in the current scenario. He knows that his journey in the political sphere would have many speed breakers if the generation next of the Gandhis assumes absolute control of the organisation. Thus, there is no harm if he sees himself in a different role, that of an elder statesman, in order to share his wide political experience from another stage. It is unthinkable that he would replicate Mukherjee in the present times, but he could certainly keep his opponents guessing regarding his next move.
The G-23 is not a body of the Sangh Parivar but of those who have, over a period of time, contributed immensely to the growth of the Congress, but now find themselves stranded in a political cul-de-sac. There are former Chief Ministers, former Youth Congress presidents, former Union ministers and several key functionaries who want the Congress to be back on rails. That is if someone listens to them.
There have always been factions within the grand old party and at one stage, the Socialist Forum and the Nehru Forum had helped the leadership in evolving a better strategy for the future.
The seniors, with their invaluable experience can help the younger elements to charge up the Congress. Jairam is a gifted politician and should use greater restraint in future. It is for the high command to keep the party together by making proper choices. Between us.