‘In Congress, you are spineless,’ Ghulam Nabi Azad says left because of Rahul Gandhi

“Yes. Not me alone, but at least a few dozen more – both young and old leaders. Once you are in Congress, you are spineless,” he observed, adding that “you have to get operated”.

On Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification, Azad said that had he not torn the ordinance brought out by the UPA government in 2013, he would not have been disqualified.

“We brought the ordinance because we knew that one should be ready that other parties will be in power too and they would use it against us. It was a weak cabinet and it should have gone ahead by bringing a law and should have stuck by its decision of bringing the law even after Rahul Gandhi dismissed it as nonsense and tore it,” he said.

“It was a wrong thing on the part of the Congress party and decided to keep mum at the time…Rahul Gandhi would have been saved today through that only. The one who tore it, got applied on him now. He should have realized it then…’khud kiye aapne deewaron mein suraakh, ab koin jhaank rahe hain to shor kyon (after you created holes in your own wall when people are watching through them then why raise a voice now).

When asked about why he was not asked to vacate his official bungalow, while Rahul Gandhi received the order to vacate, Azad called it a decision after threat perception. “I was attacked by militants 26 times in Punjab and 16 times in Jammu and Kashmir when I was chief minister. I have been given the house because of the home ministry’s orders (on threat perception).

Ghulam Nabi Azad decided to leave Congress in August 2022 and launched his own Democratic Progressive Azad Party, working primarily in the state of Jammu and Kashmir.

When asked about a potential alliance with the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) Azad said in politics there are no untouchables. “In politics no one is untouchable. In politics, no one is a permanent friend, no one is a permanent enemy. These days nobody is untouchable in politics,” he said.

He however added that BJP may get a maximum of 25 seats, but there are other 65 seats left for him to ally with.

(With inputs from PTI)