The Timing Of Ghulam Nabi Azad’s Outbursts Against Rahul Gandhi Is Significant

By Sushil Kutty

In the mid-1990s, Ghulam Nabi Azad used to talk to journalists who had just then taken to television journalism. Azad was those days a top voice for the Congress and much sought after by journalists. Note that none of the then “TV reporters” were live to television journalism. Looking back, the tribe of politicians who deigned to give them “bytes/bites” were doing them a favour. The print journalists, most of them, tolerated the presence of ‘Newstrack’, ‘Aaj Tak’ and a couple of other audio-visual programmes that had booked slots on DD1, DD2 and, later, DD3.

And when Congress President Sitaram Kesri was being hounded out of the Congress by fellow Congress leaders, Ghulam Nabi Azad didn’t mind the “old man” getting his comeuppance in a pretty despicable manner. None of us new-fangled “TV reporters” could draw an ounce of sympathy or empathy out of Azad for the beleaguered Kesri. If anything, Ghulam Nabi Azad was in those “Kesri days” part of the coterie that had its base in the Gandhi family kitchen cabinet.

A far cry from now. Truth is, if Sitaram Kesri was still around, he would have a good laugh at the expense of Ghulam Nabi Azad. Compared to Sitaram Kesri, Ghulam Nabi Azad has had it very easy. Unlike Kesri, Azad made sure that he remained in the good books of the Gandhi family right through the Kesri years, and later during the Narasimha Rao years. Azad is one of those rare ones who always knows which side his bread is buttered on!

Azad’s talent was that he picked the signals early while others in his situation could never detect them. People like Azad are in every walk of life. They’re in our midst, ahead of us, and would be coming behind us. There is nothing wrong with them; everybody has the right to be a man of his own making, but they should not complain if somebody else did unto them what they did unto others.

Ghulam Nabi Azad should read “Alexander the Great”, and the Macedonian’s encounter with “Porus”. History is packed with lessons. And Azad makes us believe that he’s lilywhite; that everything he has said about the Gandhi family, Rahul Gandhi in particular, is gospel. New-fangled TV reporters of the mid-1990s would remember how Azad’s generous “bytes” would be dropped with an “Azad wink”, and an “Azad smile”.

None of the then TV journalists would imagine Azad in a role other than that of a Gandhi-family acolyte. Azad’s “Gandhi Family Days” goes back to the Congress party’s “Indira Days”. For his gold standard loyalty to the Gandhis, through Gandhi-family tragedies, catastrophes and calamities, Ghulam Nabi Azad was always there for the Gandhi family, and the Gandhi family was always there for Ghulam Nabi Azad.

It was a quid pro quo. Azad was awarded with plum government posts; given prime party positions; he was for the longest the eyes and ears of the Gandhi family. In the Mughal court, Azad would have sat with Man Singh and Birbal, he would have been a ‘Navratna’, a high-ranking courtier with diamonds on his fingers.

Call it sycophancy or loyalty, royalty always rewards, and Ghulam Nabi Azad never disappointed nor was he disappointed. Today, Sitaram Kesri and Narasimha Rao, both of them would call Azad ungrateful. The Ghulam Nabi Azad of 25 years before was a Gandhi family sycophant, always at the beck and call of the Gandhi family. Right up to 2014. Nobody would have believed that he hid humongous resentment against the Gandhis behind his poker face.

Ghulam Nabi Azad is a master at disguising his real thoughts. His scathing attack on Rahul Gandhi comes after he has been sidelined, after a new coterie took over the business of running the party. Punishment for Azad will come later. When reality hits, and hits hard. There was a time when Azad was the centre of the coterie. And, then, he wasn’t! If that didn’t hurt, what?

Azad’s indictment of Rahul Gandhi is because Rahul sidelined “experienced leaders” like himself; after Rahul allowed “a new coterie” of “inexperienced sycophants”. After Rahul “demolished (the) consultative mechanism”. After Rahul started using the ‘remote control’. After Rahul’s “security guards, and PAs” refused Azad entry into Gandhi-circles. After news came that Rahul will prop up a “proxy” to take over “leadership of the party”. After the emasculation of Azad in the party was complete. And final. (IPA Service)