While Ghulam Azad cites ideologies made it impossible to work with BJP, he said, “I thought PM Modi was crude but he showed humanity.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s tears at Ghulam Nabi Azad’s Rajya Sabha farewell last year is once again making news again ever since Mr Azad left Congress last week. Speaking to NDTV, former union minister, and seventh chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir Ghulam Nabi Azad said, “I used to think Modi saheb must be a crude man,” Mr Azad added, speaking to reporters about the crying episode, “I thought he won’t care… since he does not have a wife or any kids. But, at least, he showed humanity.”
#WATCH | "I thought PM Modi to be a crude man but he showed humanity," says Ghulam Nabi Azad pic.twitter.com/LhVHopvdhe
— ANI (@ANI) August 29, 2022
Ghulam Nabi Azad today explained why Prime Minister Narendra Modi teared up in Parliament during a farewell speech when Mr Azad’s Rajya Sabha tenure ended last year. The tears have been making news again ever since Mr Azad left Congress last week.
“Read the contents of his speech. PM Modi was not talking about being sad at my leaving the House. He was talking about an incident,” said Mr Azad.
“Some tourists from Gujarat had died in a grenade attack in Kashmir (in 2006), when I was chief minister there. Modi saheb, who was chief minister of Gujarat, called my office. But I was choked up, crying at how brutal the killings were. I could not speak with him. He heard me crying as my staff brought the phone close to me,” he recounted.
The attack happened on May 25, 2006, in Srinagar, in which four tourists were killed and six were injured. “Mr Modi kept calling my office for updates. Later, as I was seeing off the two planes carrying the bodies and those injured, families of the victims were howling in grief. I started weeping too. It came on on TV too. He called but, again, I could not speak,” he said.
Mr Azad has been facing allegations by the Congress — that he’s being controlled by the BJP — ever since he left the party after five decades of being in Congress, which has caste a shadow on the leadership of Rahul Gandhi.
Earlier, speaking to NDTV, Mr Azad said he was among senior Congress leaders who disagreed with using the slogan “Chowkidar Hi Chor Hai” against PM Modi that Rahul Gandhi brought up before the 2019 elections. He said the seniors were all for policy-based opposition to PM Modi — who calls himself the “chowkidar” or watchman of the country — but they could not use words such as “chor” (thief) against a prime minister. “That’s not our culture,” he said.
About his plans now, he declared that he will not do any business with the BJP. He underlined his announcement to form his own party — starting with Jammu and Kashmir, where elections are likely by early next year.
Mentioning differences over ideology, he said the BJP and he has “different vote banks”, so “there is no question” of working together.
Perhaps the greatest driving issue in Congress is not having an official president even though Rahul Gandhi is the de facto president. Elections once again have been delayed to October 2022. While Congress can appoint its president, be it Rahul Gandhi or anyone else, it is imperative that the chair does not remain empty as the voices are saying that if Congress cannot officially choose its head, how can they make snap decisions to lead the nation? The step of having a president gives a message of good organization within the party which will work for the nation too and makes people in the country feel safe and confident in that party.
Shashi Tharoor writes in his article, “Many Congress supporters have been dismayed by Rahul Gandhi’s refusal to contest and his statement that no member of the Gandhi family should replace him. It is really for the Gandhi family to decide where they collectively stand on this issue, but in a democracy, no party should put itself in the position of believing that only one family can lead it.”
He also writes, “We were not against any individual but desired to improve the way the party deals with issues. The problem with the Congress today is that to many critics, it looks increasingly like an envelope without any address on it.”
My article in @mathrubhumieng reacting to recent developments in @INCIndia including the CWC’s call for presidential elections: https://t.co/emZnWrRluI
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) August 29, 2022