Congress workers burn effigy of Azad, ask party high command to expel them

Congress workers burn effigy of Azad, ask party high command to expel them

By: Musaib Iqbal MK

Srinagar

Reacting to the recent activities by the rebel leaders headed by Ghulam Nabi Azad in Jammu region, many Congress leaders who are loyal to Gandhi family came to the press club to burn the effigy of Azad and also asked the party high command to take stern action against all rebels as they claimed that they were weakening the party by praising PM Modi.

These Congress leaders said that Ghulam Nabi Azad can praise PM Modi while he snatched the special status and all the rights of people in Jammu and Kashmir.

They claimed that Ghulam Nabi Azad by praising Modi was furthering his own agenda and for personal gains he was out to weaken the party not only in Jammu and Kashmir but in the rest of states.

They were raising slogans against Azad and in praise of Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi. Most of the protesting activists’ according to the reports were from the youth wing of Congress in Jammu.

Meanwhile PTI in its report about this incident at Jammu press club said, “The first-of-its-kind protest against the former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister came days after a rally addressed by some ”G-23” leaders ostensibly to felicitate Azad on his retirement from the Rajya Sabha. It was seen as a show of strength to convey a message to the party leadership.

 

The group of 23 leaders wrote to the interim president Sonia Gandhi in August last year urging her to ensure “full time” and “visible” leadership. It has since come to be known as ”G-23”.

Led by senior leader and District Development Council (DDC) member and former general secretary of J-K Congress Mohammad Shahnawaz Choudhary, Congress activists appeared outside the Press Club here in the afternoon and set ablaze the effigy of Azad amid high-pitch sloganeering against him and in support of party president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi.

“Congress has always put him (Azad) on the top and when the party needed his experience at the time of crisis, he came to Jammu and Kashmir and praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi who deprived us of statehood. It is clear that he is working at the behest of the BJP to weaken the party for his personal gains,” Choudhary, a former J-K Pradesh Youth Congress president, told reporters.

Choudhary, who won the DDC election from Surankot-A constituency of Poonch as an independent, accused Azad of conspiracy against the Congress leadership and demanded his expulsion from the party.

Amid sloganeering in support of Rahul Gandhi and stern action against Azad from the party, Choudhary said they have come on the roads to give vent to their anger.

“It is the Congress which groomed him (Azad) over the decades, sends him to Rajya Sabha repeatedly and made him chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir.

 

“When the Congress is in crisis and he should have used his experience to strengthen the party, he comes to J-K with a select group of G-23 leaders and showers praises on Prime Minister Modi to weaken the party for his personal interests,” the Congress leader said.

On Sunday, Azad at a function here praised Modi, saying he speaks frankly about his past as a tea-seller and does not try to hide his background from the world.

“I admire several things about a number of leaders… I am from a village and I am proud of it. A big leader, our prime minister, says he is from a village, he used to sell tea. We may have political differences, but at least he doesn”t hide his reality,” he had said.

Continuing his tirade against Azad, Choudhary said he stayed away from the DDC election campaigning and invited a select group of G-23 leaders to a function organised by the Gandhi Global Family which he is heading himself.

“Congress activist is not a fool. He enjoyed when Congress was in power and when the time had come for him to pay back to the party, he is conspiring against it,” he said.

Choudhary said Sonia and Rahul are the “real leaders” of every party activist and they are conspiring against them.

“We are foot soldiers of the party and anyone conspiring against the party leadership will have to face our anger,” he said.

“Congress gave him (Azad) everything – by making him union minister several times chief minister of J-K, leader of opposition, but when stepped down from power, he instead of strengthening party during present state is weakening it,” Chaudhary said.

“We urge the Congress high command to oust Azad from the party for his anti-party activities”, he said.

With inputs from PTI

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.