New Delhi: A teary-eyed Prime Minister Narendra Modi and an equally emotional Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad showed one of the rare moments of camaraderie between the government and the opposition in the Rajya Sabha on the Congress leader’s retirement Tuesday.
Speaking on the occasion, the Congress Rajya Sabha MP went on to say that “if any Muslim in the world should be proud, then it should be the Muslims of India”.
He further explained his statement by citing Pakistan as an example. “I am among those who have never been to Pakistan but when I study the kind of circumstances there are and evils that exist in the society of Pakistan… although we should not say such things about other countries, we can say proudly that such evils are not part of Muslims of India. We should be proud.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah were present during Azad’s farewell speech.
Azad got emotional while recalling an attack on Gujarati tourists in the Valley in 2006, when he was the J&K chief minister. Prime Minister Modi had earlier in the day also become teary-eyed while recounting the same incident.
Azad said the incident was one of the five times that he had cried loudly in his life. He recalled how the families and children of victims moved him to tears. “I pray to God that militancy and terrorism end in this country,” he said.
Even as he said Indian Muslims should feel proud, Azad said the majority community also needed to take two steps forward.
Modi, Azad bonhomie
Earlier in the day, PM Modi choked up during the farewell to Azad. Asking him to share his suggestions with him, the PM said: “Do not feel like you are no longer in the House. My doors are always open for you. I will need your suggestions. I will not let you retire.”
The Congress MP reciprocated, saying that the prime minister brought a personal touch to all matters. “There were times when we had verbal fights in the House. Even when long speeches were delivered, you never used to take my words personally. You separated the personal from the politics,” he said.
“Whether it was Eid, Diwali and even on my birthday, you always used to call, apart from my party president Sonia Gandhi… The country is run with collaboration, not through fights.”
He also said he had fond memories of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee who he said always took care of opposition MPs too. “When Atalji was the Leader of Opposition, I was the Parliamentary Affairs Minister and we did not have a majority,” he said. “However, as far as running the House is concerned, those were the five easiest years. I learnt from Atalji how to be an efficient Leader of Opposition.”
On his political career, Azad said he got the chance to be in Parliament because of Indira Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi. The Congress MP also said that he was the first to hold a public meeting in Sopore, after becoming the J&K chief minister, a place he added no one can address a rally even today.
“In that meeting, I had said that if a minister of my government will carry out justice on the basis of religion or or party, then I will be ashamed of working with that minister or officer,” Azad said.
Raising the pitch for rehabilitating Kashmiri Pandits in the Valley, Azad narrated a couplet: “Dil na umeed to nahi, nakaam hi to hai, lambi hai gham ki shaam magar shaam hi to hai.”
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