New Delhi: Ghulam Nabi Azad Azad entered the political fray as secretary of the Block Congress Committee in Bhalessa in Jammu and Kashmir in 1973 to 1975 and moved up the ranks to become the president of the J&K Youth Congress in 1975-76.
He won his first parliamentary election in 1980 from Washim in Maharashtra and became a minister at the Centre under Indira Gandhi in 1982. He later served under all Congress prime ministers – Rajiv Gandhi, Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh. Azad was first given a Rajya Sabha ticket in June 1991.
Azad said he joined the Indian National Congress in Jammu & Kashmir in mid 1970s when it was still a taboo to be associated with the party given its chequered history in the state from August 8, 1953 onwards the arrest of Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah being the nadir of its “political myopia”.
He said he was inspired by the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Lal Nehru, Sardar Patel, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Subhash Chandra Bose and other leading lights of the freedom struggle from his student days and joined the party at the personal insistence of Sanjay Gandhi.
From 1977 onwards he was general secretary of the Indian Youth Congress (IYC) led by Late Sanjay Gandhi and went to jail several times, his longest period in Tihar jail being from December 20, 1978 to end of January 1979.
After Sanjay’s demise, he took over as the National President of IYC in 1980 and had the privilege of inducting Rajiv Gandhi into the Indian Youth Congress as a Member of the National Council on Sanjay Gandhi’s first death anniversary on June 23, 1981.
Azad also served as AICC general secretary with every president of the Congress since the mid 1980s and was a member of the Congress Parliamentary Board headed by Rajiv Gandhi till his death in May 1991 and later with Rao till the latter decided not to reconstitute the Congress Parliamentary Board in October 1992.
He was also a member of the Congress Working Committee, the highest decision-making body of the Congress, continuously for nearly four decades both in an elected and a nominated capacity and served as AICC general secretary in-charge of every state and Union Territory of the country at one point of time or the other over the last 35 years.
Azad claimed that he won 90 per cent of states that he was in-charge from time to time and finally served as the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha for seven years.
PTI

Press Trust of India