Ghulam Nabi Azad has the ability to Amarinder Congress as PM Modi’s doors are open

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YesHulam Nabi Azad has created a stir in the political circles. At the age of 72, his stomach caught fire. He can still draw crowds in J&K. He addressed 10 public meetings, including two in the Valley, from November 16 to December 4.

Azad has not again come into limelight because of his good attendance at these meetings. For the first time since the special status of Jammu and Kashmir was abolished in August 2019, top leaders have started taking to the streets. And people are excited about it. Another former Chief Minister of National Conference Omar Abdullah is drawing a large crowd.

What is creating buzz is how Azad is no longer speaking words about Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Vadra. “to say no” [to the Gandhis]You become nothing today,” he said ndtv, He says that he has been in the Congress for almost five decades and will remain so. He says he has no intention of leaving Congress and forming his own party, but also qualifies: “No one can say what will happen next in politics.”

His reluctance to attack Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah during his public meetings did not go unnoticed. Azad will instead question the development and employment claims of the Union Territory Administration headed by Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha. He will not even attack Sinha directly. While he told people how he had opposed the dilution of Article 370 in Parliament, he would ignore the reverse. He will leave it to the Supreme Court and fight for the state. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has no objection to this.

So, what are Azad doing? A quintessential loyalist of the Gandhi family, his decision to have 22 leaders join forces to write that controversial letter to Sonia Gandhi in August 2020 shocked many. Perhaps, he had a sense that Rahul Gandhi wanted to replace him with Mallikarjun Kharge as the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha. The Congress nominated Kharge to the Upper House in June 2020. Azad’s apprehensions proved correct as the Congress high command allowed his Rajya Sabha term to end in February 2021.

If you ask Congress leaders about Azad in today’s context, they will take you to the tearful farewell of Prime Minister Modi to Azad in the Rajya Sabha last February. “I will not let you retire… my doors are always open for you,” Modi said Then in a suffocating voice.

Azad also cried. It’s been 10 months since then. But Modi’s words still resonate in the corridors of Congress.

Read also: Goodbye Ghulam Nabi Azad – Why Congress remained silent on Modi’s cry, opponents praised

Push Factor for Ghulam Nabi Azad

Can Azad replace Congress with Amarinder? Unlike the former Punjab CM, who left the Congress in 1984 after Operation Blue Star to return after 14 years, Azad has been a Congress man during his five decades in politics. The former CM of J&K has also been arguably the biggest beneficiary of the Gandhi family’s patronage. Look at his career. Indira Gandhi inducted him as a deputy minister in 1982, two years after he won the Lok Sabha elections from Maharashtra. Since then he has been a minister in every Congress-led government. He was in the Rajya Sabha from 1990 to 2021, except for a gap of almost three years – that too because he was made the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir. Appointed General Secretary of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) by Rajiv Gandhi in 1987, he held the charge of almost every state and union territory of India. He is a member of Congress Working Committee (CWC) since 1987.

For someone who has enjoyed power for so long with the Gandhi family at the helm of the Congress, talking about the possibility of leaving the Congress is only a guess for now. But many staunch Gandhi family loyalists have failed to cope with life without power. Azad knows better than anyone that you must have an exit plan when the Gandhi family is attacked. He has been doing it many times, that too in public.

It is tempting to draw a parallel line between Amarinder Singh and Azad. Both got clear indications of hanging shoes from the Gandhi family. A month after the G-23 wrote a letter to Sonia Gandhi, Azad was removed from the post of AICC general secretary. Six months later, he was out of the Rajya Sabha. Last month, he was dropped from the party’s disciplinary committee.

In Punjab, the Gandhi family appointed Amarinder Singh-batter Navjot Singh Sidhu as state Congress chief, leading to the fall of the CM. The Gandhi family has been supporting J&K Congress chief Ghulam Ahmed Mir, who is anti-Azad. 20 senior Congress leaders close to Azad, including four former ministers and three MLAs, had resigned last month demanding Mir’s removal. The Gandhi family responded by removing him from the disciplinary committee.

Read also: Why the alliances of Congress and TMC with Goa regional parties may not be enough to fight the BJP?

Can Azad go the way of Captain?

Azad has denied any intention to form a new party. But he himself says that no one knows what will happen next in politics. So, let’s look at his options. Unlike Amarinder Singh, who never shied away from state politics, Azad has essentially been a ‘Delhi man’, except for the three years (2005–2008) he spent in Kashmir after becoming chief minister. Since 2008, he has been promoting his loyalists based in the state, but has himself remained in Delhi. Singh had a lot in common – his support for the farmers’ movement, his military stand on security-related issues relating to the border state, and the continued opposition of Hindus against Arvind Kejriwal. considered daliance With separatist Sikh elements, among others.

But for the resources required and the challenges of forming a new political organisation, Singh could have gone it alone without the BJP. Azad has no such advantage in Jammu and Kashmir. In fact, the Amarnath land dispute, which toppled his government, remains in the memory of the people even today. He may have managed to garner a decent crowd for his meetings, but that still doesn’t make him a mass leader who can swing elections.

Read also: Congress’ campaign missing to fight and win – Former Meghalaya Chief Minister Mukul Sangma after joining TMC

Azad has nothing to lose

However, the former CM of Jammu and Kashmir does not have much choice. He can choose to remain in Congress but will then have to accept his virtual retirement. Another option is to wait for the Gandhi family to see the cause and stop treating the Congress as a proprietary firm. But it will not happen. The third is to use the door opened by the PM in his Rajya Sabha speech in February and form a new political organisation.

Unlike Amarinder Singh in Punjab, Azad cannot forge an open alliance with the BJP in J&K, but there can be a tacit agreement between the two. BJP knows that it can never form government on its own in J&K like Punjab. It needs an ally. The expansion of his party so far has not impressed the BJP leadership. Azad may not have a personality cult in J&K, but he is an organization man with a group of followers in the Congress.

Given the disenchantment of people with mainstream regional parties in the Valley, Azad’s new party may have just as good or a bad chance as the others. He can hope to do better in Jammu region with the help of BJP. This will open the doors of power for the BJP in the Union Territory.

This is a win-win situation for both BJP and Azad as neither has anything to lose. Even though Azad’s new political venture does not begin, he can always hope for some form of reward outside Jammu and Kashmir. For now, though, he may like to see how Amarinder Singh’s possible alliance with the BJP pans out in the Punjab elections.

The author is the political editor of ThePrint. He tweeted at @dksingh73. Thoughts are personal.

(Edited by Prashant)

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