Following Ghulam Nabi Azad's resignation from all party positions on Friday, the Congress' central leadership retaliated and stated that Azad's "DNA is Modi-fied". In response to Azad's resignation, Congress general secretary and national spokesperson Jairam Ramesh said, “It is unfortunate, regrettable that this happened when the organisation is combating BJP on price rise, unemployment among other issues.”
The timing of Azad's resignation was also questioned by Congress, which stated that the “content of Ghulam Nabi Azad's letter is not factual, timing is awful.”
Congress acknowledged that Ghulam Nabi Azad was a prominent party official and expressed sadness that he left the party when it was struggling against inflation and polarisation.
The responses from Congress came shortly after Ghulam Nabi Azad blamed Rahul Gandhi for the demise of the party in his lengthy resignation letter and said that proxies are being supported for the presidency, where they will simply serve as puppets.
Azad said that at a specially called meeting of the extended Congress Working Committee, they had been subjected to abuse, humiliation, insults, and vilification as a result of their letter, which was signed by 23 leaders, asking for reforms in the party for 2020.
Recalling the incident, Azad in his letter stated: "In fact, on the direction of the coterie that runs the AICC today my mock funeral possession was taken out in Jammu. Those who committed indiscipline were feted in Delhi by the General Secretaries of the AICC and Rahul Gandhi personally."
In his resignation letter, Azad said: "Unfortunately, after the entry of Rahul Gandhi into politics and particularly after January 2013 when he was appointed as the Vice President by you, the entire consultative mechanism which existed earlier was demolished by him."
"All senior and experienced leaders were sidelined and a new coterie of inexperienced sycophants started running the affairs of the party," he added.