'No comments': Cong on Padma Bhushan for Ghulam Nabi Azad; division within party on honour

Congress on Thursday refused to comment on the Narendra Modi government conferring Padma Bhushan on senior leader Ghulam Nabi Azad and the row over him accepting it as leaders were divided over the issue.

“I have no comment to make,” Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate told a press conference when asked about the Padma award for Azad and the row over it following a tweet by senior MP Jairam Ramesh slamming the senior leader, who had joined 22 leaders to write to party chief Sonia Gandhi seeking changes in the party.

Congress has so far not made any comments on Azad’s recognition, indicating that the party is not happy over the national honour by the BJP dispensation.

Azad has a good equation with the Prime Minister and the party is looking at his activities, including a series of rallies he conducted in Jammu and Kashmir recently, amid speculation that he may float an outfit of his own. Azad had described these rumours as unfounded.

Also Read | Ironic Congress doesn't need his services when nation recognises them: Sibal on Padma award to Azad

The Modi government had on Tuesday evening announced Azad’s name among 17 Padma Bhushan winners, while former West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee declined to accept the award. Rajya Sabha Chief Whip Jairam Ramesh expressed unease within a section of the party through a cryptic tweet playing on Azad’s name, "(Bhattacharjee's refusal) Right thing to do. He wants to be Azad, not Ghulam."

However, this did not go down well with Azad's supporters in the G-23 with Kapil Sibal, Anand Sharma, Manish Tewari, Shashi Tharoor and Bhupinder Singh Hooda coming out in support of the veteran leader. Sibal said it was ironic that the party was not using Azad’s services when the country had honoured his services.

Azad also got support from outside the G-23 with former Union Minister Ashwani Kumar who said Ramesh’s criticism was “nothing less than a shameful innuendo intended to rob both the award and its recipient of the deserved dignity”.

Also Read: Priyanka Chaturvedi, Sushmita Deb finds fault with Jairam's Azad criticism

The Shiv Sena’s Priyanka Chaturvedi and the Trinamool Congress’s Sushmita Deb, both former Congress leaders, also found fault with Ramesh.

"Calling someone Azad for declining a national honour and Ghulam for accepting it, shows how shallow one’s thought is towards a national honour. This isn’t the first nor the last time that Opposition leaders will be acknowledged for their work, please maintain that spirit and dignity," Priyanka said.

Sushmita, who was a former Mahila Congress chief, tweeted, "Padma Bhushan for Tarun Gogoi and Bharat Ratna for Pranab Mukherjee - does it make them Ghulams?" She joined the Trinamool Congress last year and was later nominated to the Rajya Sabha.

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