Senior Congress leader G.A. Mir on Sunday described the leaders who left the Congress following Ghulam Nabi Azad's resignation from the party as the "A-Team of the BJP".
Mr. Azad would meet the same fate as ex-Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, said the former president of the Congress' Jammu and Kashmir unit at a press conference here. He was flanked by Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee president Viqar Rasool and other party leaders.
The Jammu and Kashmir unit of the Congress put up a united face at former Union Minister Saifuddin Soz's residence where about a dozen party leaders held a meeting to deliberate upon the situation.
Asked how he saw Mr. Azad's future, Mr. Mir replied, "Captain Amrinder Singh".
"Till now we used to say (about some parties in J&K) as B-Team, C-Team (of the BJP). But now, they (Mr. Azad-led group) are coming forward as the A-Team. The veil is being lifted, and the people of Jammu and Kashmir will decide what happens to them," Mr. Mir said.
Questioning the timing of Mr. Azad's resignation, Mr. Mir said he should have waited for Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s return from abroad.
He said the whole country knows that there are only two camps in the country now. "On one hand, there is a party in government with a thinking of breaking India, and on the other is the thinking of uniting the country which the Congress party is leading under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi." "The whole country, NGOs and the civil society are appreciating the step taken by Rahul Gandhi and are supporting his mission," Mr. Mir added.
He said at a time when all Congress workers were thinking that "such a towering leader (Azad) will stand with the party he, unfortunately, parted ways".
"We do not need to understand where he is going… Does he want to go with those parties, with that thinking which took away Jammu and Kashmir's statehood, its special status and has taken it to the verge of unemployment?" Mr. Mir asked.
The former Jammu and Kashmir Congress president said all leaders present at the meeting have unitedly vowed to support the Congress' ideology, leadership and secular character till their last breath.
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"We stand with Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, are at their beck and call and will work with greater zeal to strengthen the party," Mr. Mir said.
About those who left the Congress immediately after Mr. Azad's resignation, Mr. Mir said they were "hero-worshipping kind of people who did not know the ABC of the Congress".
"They will leave when some personality they worship leaves, but those who follow the party’s ideology and its leadership will stand with its secularism, socialism. We all are one and united," he said.
Mr. Mir said leaders come and go, but it is the people who make leaders.
"The public is minutely watching the situation. They will decide the fate of those whom the party gave everything and they left it when the party wanted them".
