Azad, Najma
blast Sonia Gandhi; Hanumantha Rao pans Bhatti and Uttam Kumar
The three leaders have written biographies and their working with the Congress party. They have taken potshots at the party and its senior members.
C R Gowri Shanker Follow on Twitter| Published: 2nd December 2024 6:50 pm
Hyderabad: Senior Congress leaders, who quit the
party or those unhappy with the treatment meted out to them by some of their
own party leaders, are writing books to vent their ire.
After Ghulam Nabi Azad, V Hanumantha Rao, it’s the turn of
Dr Ms Najma Heptulla.
In her autobiography In Pursuit of Democracy which
chronicles her journey, struggle, determination, hard work and enterprise in a
career spanning four decades including 17 years as Deputy Chairperson of Rajya
Sabha, she narrates her life in Congress party.
Dr Najma narrates her disillusionment with former UPA
chairperson and MP Sonia Gandhi’s leadership, poor communication and party
decline under her tenure.
While praising former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s
support during her Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) presidency in 1999, she
takes a broadside against Sonia Gandhi’s style of functioning.
Najma Heptulla reveals in the book that she had to wait for
an hour on international call to speak to Sonia Gandhi and convey her
jubilation on being elected President of the IPU.
A staff member told her that “Madam is busy” and kept her
waiting but Sonia Gandhi never came on line. “It was truly disappointing,” the
veteran leader remarked.
Describing it as a “historic first and a great honour” that
elevated her journey from the Indian Parliament to the global stage, she says
when she called Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee from Berlin he immediately
took her call and congratulated her.
“When he heard the news, he was delighted, first because the
honour had come to India, and second, it had come to an Indian Muslim woman.
You come back and we will celebrate,” Vajpayee told Heptulla.
Najma Heptulla had close ties with the then Prime Minister
Indira Gandhi and learnt a lot from her. She worked with Y B Chavan, Indira
Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Pranab Mukherjee, P V Narasimha Rao, L K Advani, Atal
Bihari Vajpayee, and Sharad Pawar, among others.
Unable to bear slights, she quit Congress and joined the
Bharatiya Janata Party.
VHR hits out at party leaders
Another senior Congress leader and former MP, V Hanumantha
Rao also came out with his biography titled The Extraordinary Life and Times of
V Hanumantha Rao which was released by Meira Kumar, former Speaker of Lok Sabha
in New Delhi recently.
Unlike Heptulla, 76-year-old VHR, a three-time Rajya Sabha
MP, MLA, Minister, and AICC Secretary, is all praise for the entire Gandhi
family right from Sanjay Gandhi, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi to
Priyanka Gandhi in his book but takes potshots against some of the party
leaders of undivided Andhra Pradesh and Telangana State including late
Nedurumalli Janardhana Reddy, M Satyanarayana Rao, Y S Rajasekhar Reddy, D
Srinivas and more recently Deputy Chief Minister Bhatti Vikramarka and N Uttam
Kumar Reddy, who are in A Revanth Reddy cabinet.
Seventy-six-year-old VHR tried for a Khammam Lok Sabha
ticket and Rajya Sabha berth but was disappointed as the Congress High Command
looked to the younger generation. Though initially unhappy with Congress High
Command backing Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, he later backed him.
While VHR continues to be loyal to Congress and Gandhi
family, he is visibly upset at the party leadership denying him a respected
post in the party. He demands Congress High Command to recognise loyal party
leaders and workers. Sources say he is aiming for AICC OBC cell chairmanship.
Azad criticises Sonia Gandhi
Former Union Minister, Jammu and Kashmir chief minister,
senior Congress leader and Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP) President
Ghulam Nabi Azad too came out with a tell-all biography and narrated his woes
in the Congress which he finally quit and launched his political party.
Azad narrated the sidelining of senior Congress leaders and
the increasing sway of a ‘coterie of inexperienced sycophants’ as the reasons
behind his exit from the party.
He criticised Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in his book
Azaad: An Autobiography.
“Unfortunately, after the entry of Shri Rahul Gandhi into
politics and particularly after January 2013 when he was appointed as VP by you
(Sonia Gandhi), the entire consultative mechanism which existed earlier was
demolished by him,” says GN Azad.
He adds, “Worse still, the ‘remote control model’ that
demolished the institutional integrity of the UPA government has now been
applied to INC. While you’re just a nominal figurehead, all the important
decisions were being taken by Shri Rahul Gandhi or, worse, his security guards
and PAs.”
Azad said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s farewell speech on
his retirement from Rajya Sabha made the Congress leadership unhappy and
critical and he was described as a BJP man.
Azad says he had nothing personal against any of his
political opponents. “I treat political opponents as competitors, not enemies,”
wrote Azad, but the Gandhi family did not accept it.
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