Congress leaders in Jammu and Kashmir have termed the recent criticism of Ghulam Nabi Azad of their party leader Rahul Gandhi as “treachery” and “ungratefulness”.
Congress leaders including Prof. Saifuddin Soz, Ghulam Ahmad Mir and Tariq Hameed Karra in a joint statement have lambasted their former party colleague Azad over his recent remarks, following the launch of his autobiography ‘Azaad’.
The former Leader of Opposition in Parliament, Azad, who has also served as Union Minister and Chief Minister of J&K, recently blamed Rahul Gandhi for his exit from the grand old party, where his political career spanned over 50 years.
“Once you are in Congress, you are spineless…” Azad had said while launching the scathing attack on Rahul Gandhi.
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Congress leaders said Azad got a “sea of opportunities and favours” from the Nehru-Gandhi family.
“…Nehru Gandhi family whom Azad is now targeting made a sea of opportunities available for him. He was elected to Rajya Sabha many times and subsequently made Union Minister a number of times without facing elections, which he should also count while speaking on Gandhi family,” Congress leaders said.
They also added that Azad is deliberately creating confusion among the people at a time when Rahul Gandhi is fighting the battle against “crony capitalism and organized loot of nation’s wealth on the part of Modi government”.
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They also said Azad is doing it deliberately on the directions of his “newfound masters”.
Azad hailing from J&K’s Doda district was introduced to politics by then Congress leader Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and was subsequently made youth leader of the party by Indira Gandhi, who was impressed by the young Azad’s political acumen.
The Congress leaders in their attack on Azad said, “They are the same Gandhi’s what they used to be when he (Azad) was rewarded out of turn with top positions including ministerial berths and other important party positions, from time to time against the wishes of seniors”.
The Congress has also said Azad’s recently launched political party— Democratic Azad Party (DAP) has been designed to “fragment the Muslim majority vote to favour BJP”.
They also said Azad didn’t accept Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi’s offer to head the party in J&K for the last five years.
They claimed Azad would in his response to party leadership always say that “J&K is too small a place for him (Azad) to play politics”.
