With the reconstitution of posts in the All India Congress Committee (AICC), a local leader named Ghulam Ahmed Mir, who had been against Ghulam Nabi Azad in Jammu and Kashmir (when the veteran leader was in Congress) has been given a top position of general secretary in-charge in the party. Sources claim his ascension is a surprise when there are so many national leaders in queue.
Mir from Anantnag was the president of the Jammu & Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee from 2015 until he tendered his resignation in July 2022. However, he has not held any position in AICC before. A leader said, “He has just been a local leader in Kashmir. He has never been a part of the J&K Cabinet, he has not held any constitutional post at the Centre and he is comparatively less experienced in national politics. But still he was given the position.”
A political observer privy to Congress functioning said, “He has been made the general secretary just to show Azad how the Congress party can make anyone an important person overnight. The Congress leadership is trying to create the impression that it was they who made Azad a national leader and will now make Ghulam Mir also a national leader.”
According to a section of leaders, some leaders in the AICC are still trying to teach Azad, who left the Congress, a lesson, rather than focusing on their own house, which is crumbling because of poor leadership. Sources add that Mir’s case was helped because he was in constant touch with a leader close to the Gandhis, apart from he himself being in the good books of the Gandhis. He was first close to Satish Sharma who was close to Rajiv Gandhi. After Sharma’s death, Mir continued on his way up due to his association.