G-23 Media Creation, Not Against Anyone, Working to Strengthen Congress: Ghulam Nabi Azad at Jammu Meet Senior Congress leader G...

G-23 Media Creation, Not Against Anyone, Working to Strengthen Congress: Ghulam Nabi Azad at Jammu Meet

Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, who recently retired from the Rajya Sabha, said everybody is working for the grand old party and trying to strengthen it. Calling the term ‘G23’ (group of 23 Congress leaders, who wrote a letter to Sonia Gandhi in August last year) a media creation, Azad said, “We are not against anyone or any leader. We are working for the Congress and to strengthen it. There are many who are trying to divide the nation. We are looking to develop the nation.”

Speaking at an event, titled Shanti Sammelan, in Jammu where the former leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha was accompanied by other Congress dissenters like Anand Sharma, Kapil Sibal and Raj Babbar, Azad said, “In the last five-six years, all these friends (party leaders) did not speak any less than me in the Parliament over Jammu and Kashmir, its unemployment, stripping off of statehood, finishing off industries and education, implementation of GST.

Be it Jammu or Kashmir or Ladakh, we respect all religions, people and castes. We equally respect everyone, that is our strength and we will continue with this,” the former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister said.

Hitting out at Narendra Modi-led BJP government at the Centre over the abrogation of article 370 that took away Kashmir’s special status and making it a union territory, Azad said, “Today, after many years, we are not part of the state. Our identity has been lost. The fight will be continued inside and outside our Parliament to regain statehood. When there are no elected ministers and chief ministers, this condition of unemployment, roads and schools will continue.”