Ghulam Nabi is now 'azad', but will he remain 'free' for long?

Azad has entered a pro-BJP political space at a time when the party has dumped nearly all its Muslim leaders

Ghulam Nabi Azad is no mass leader. For almost half a century, the blessings of the first family of the Congress made him a name to reckon with in Indian politics. But at best, he was a satellite. A satellite is ineffective and a dud if there is no light and warmth from the sun. So whatever good he did was because of the patronage, and whatever bad he did was due to his machinations and manipulations. Or one could also argue that the Gandhis and Azad are to be blamed equally.

Survivors in politics are generally consummate manipulators. They see the leader's mood to tailor their response, exploit his weaknesses to advance themselves, and seek to marginalise those who come in their way. Azad is a master in that. In the Congress, he had always been in the "more equal" category, whatever position he was holding or not holding.

Also Read — Rahul Gandhi has no aptitude for politics: Azad

Survivors don't like straightforward leaders with integrity. Being sycophants themselves, they prefer this breed only. Sycophants know which way their bread is buttered. For them, a leader is just the medium to secure more prestige and power. If they fail to get it, the leader is not important to them and must be thrown in the dustbin.

Azad has done ditto by attacking Rahul Gandhi while quitting the Congress. Rahul had used his all-powerful veto to deny Azad another Rajya Sabha term. If Prime Minister Narendra Modi loses grip over the BJP and the ruling coalition tomorrow, Azad would be equally harsh on him. Survivors have no sympathy for losers as they become useless in the game of remaining relevant.

Strange but true. Azad's only game is unabashedly self-promotion without principles, and that is why he built bridges with the ruling dispensation at a time when its proclaimed agenda was and is "Congress-mukt Bharat".

A leader without any mass base enjoyed power for decades, held top posts in party and government and revolted when denied a Rajya Sabha seat that entailed a bungalow in Lutyens Delhi and is now dreaming of becoming the chief minister once again.

Also Read — 50 J&K Congress leaders resign in support of Azad

If Azad was that great a leader, Rahul would not have thrown him out of Uttar Pradesh as the in-charge general secretary ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Like the removal of a fly from milk, Azad was moved out from the key state by Rahul. It was the biggest public humiliation suffered by Azad to this day. Rahul then entrusted the state to Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Jyotiraadtiya Scindia. What the two achieved or not is another story.

As regards stature, Azad is no different from Ambika Soni, who has always been humble to call herself a Congress activist despite being political secretary to the Congress president before the late Ahmed Patel.

The 73-year-old Azad always liked to boast that he was the longest serving member of the Congress Working Committee, the party's highest decision-making body. Azad's claim might be valid, but it shows the dire straits of the Congress leadership in recent decades, where only lightweights were allowed to flourish. The Sharad Pawars had to part ways.

Among the party circles, he is not known to have taken any principled stand on any major issue. No Congress worker would vouchsafe for Azad as a man of conviction. If it were so, he would have remained in the Congress and tried to set things right. There is a rare leader in the Congress with such a persuasive nature. Outwardly amiable but profoundly shrewd Azad was like the proverbial 'potato' which could be added to any dish. So Azad could endear himself to everyone from Sanjay Gandhi, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, P V Narasimha Rao, Sitaram Kesri and Sonia Gandhi.

Rahul Gandhi proved Azad's nemesis as also for many other seniors. The first rule of politics is that when a new leader comes, he comes with his team. Azad deliberately chose to ignore this lesson.

Despite hailing from the Muslim community, Azad was never forthright on issues concerning minorities. He might have made some harsh statements when the Modi dispensation went about its wayward ways. Still, as the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Azad could have contributed to bringing the opposition together. He was virtually silent in the wake of the demolition of the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992, a development that changed the politics of the country.

Unlike Arif Mohammed Khan, Azad did not raise his voice on the Shah Bano issue or, unlike the late C K Jaffer Sharief, he did not speak on the Babri issue. Reports had it that Azad, a Union minister in the P V Narasimha Rao government, had unsuccessfully tried to persuade the then home minister S B Chavan to quit to ensure that no accusing finger was pointed at the then prime minister.

Whenever the Congress was in opposition, Azad had a good rapport with whoever was in the government. In the Atal Bihari Vajpayee days, he had close ties with the late Pramod Mahajan, one of the key figures in the government and the BJP.

Also Read — Congress must answer Ghulam Nabi Azad in party poll

So it is not unusual if Azad has developed a close rapport with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Sometime back, there was speculation that Azad could be made the country's vice president, succeeding M Venkaiah Naidu. The talk was to use a man originally from the opposition to beat it in the Rajya Sabha. The vice president is the chairman of the Rajya Sabha.

Strangely, Azad now enters a pro-BJP political space when the ruling party has dumped its Muslim leaders. Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi was the lone Muslim minister in the government till some time back. Naqvi was not renominated to the Rajya Sabha by Modi and is no longer a minister. With the end of the Rajya Sabha tenures of Naqvi, M J Akbar and Syed Zafar Islam, BJP has been left with no Muslim in either House.

For the Congress, Azad's exit is a blessing in disguise if Rahul Gandhi draws the proper lessons and brings to the fore grassroots activists who have the fire in the belly to fight back vigorously. The 'Bharat Jodo' yatra commencing next week is expected to show whether Congress will regain its lost mojo.

(The writers are senior journalists)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.