In Azad's scathing letter, Sonia Gandhi also under attack

The tone was bitter and this time, Ghulam Nabi Azad did not even spare Congress president Sonia Gandhi in his letter announcing his resignation from the Congress. The veteran leader’s five-page letter was in a way an indictment of Sonia’s leadership, especially after 2014, though the anger was majorly directed at Rahul Gandhi.

The content of the letter angered Congress leaders but some of his supporters in the G-23 or the change-seekers were also upset with former Congress MP Sandeep Dikshit who made his ire through a letter to Azad. He said they had raised a “banner of reform” when they wrote to Sonia and “not a banner of revolt”. Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh said, “the content in the letter is not factual and the timing is awful.”

Azad’s direct attack on Sonia could be read in his criticism of “proxies being propped up to take over” Congress presidentship. Sonia is learnt to have urged Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, a Gandhi family loyalist, to lead the party at a time Rahul Gandhi has refused to take up the leadership role.

Also read: Ghulam Nabi becomes 'Azad' from Congress with a scathing attack on Rahul, Sonia

He also called the organisational election process a “farce and sham”, while accusing the Congress leadership of being “squarely responsible for perpetrating a giant fraud on the party to perpetuate its hold on the ruins of what once was a national movement…”

Senior Rajya Sabha MP Abhishek Singhvi said he was “sad to read the harsh words used by Azad”, who is known as a “man of restraint and culture”.

The first one-and-half pages of Azad’s letter are devoted to his rise in Congress from a block president of the Youth Congress to a Working Committee member and a General Secretary who was in-charge of every state and union territory at one point.

At the outset, Azad reminded Sonia that he, as Youth Congress president, had “inducted your husband late Rajiv Gandhi” into the Youth Congress as a member of the National Council on June 23, 1981 on the death anniversary of Sanjay Gandhi. Rajiv assumed the leadership of the Youth Congress at a special session in Bengaluru in December that year.

His reference to “dethroning” of Sitaram Kesri – a controversial episode in Congress history in the run-up to Sonia assuming party leadership – has not been lost on some party leaders. Azad referred to Kesri as a prelude to the ‘chintan shivirs’ in Pachmarhi and Shimla in 1998 and 2003 respectively where certain decisions were taken. However, Azad wrote in the letter in an attempt to showcase Sonia’s failure, “regrettably none of the recommendations” were “ever properly implemented”.

Also Read: GNA's DNA has been 'Modi-fied': Congress' Jairam Ramesh on Ghulam Nabi Azad

He also then referred to the 2013 Jaipur conclave where a committee headed by him recommended a detailed action plan, which was later approved by the Congress Working Committee and was to be implemented in a time-bound manner ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. “Unfortunately, these recommendations are lying in the storeroom of the AICC for the past nine years,” he said.

Despite his reminders to both Sonia and Rahul, he said no effort was made to even examine them “seriously”. The letter also refers to the election debacles in states and Lok Sabha.

He also indirectly blames Sonia for the dismantling of a system of consultation with seniors through the appointment of Rahul as Vice President in 2013.