I thought Modi is a cruel man but..., says former opposition leader Ghulam Nabi Azad after quitting Congress

Former Indian National Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad on Monday (29) said why Indian prime minister Narendra Modi was in tears while delivering a farewell speech for him after his tenure at the Rajya Sabha or Upper House of the Indian Parliament concluded in 2021.

The episode was doing the rounds once again in the wake of Azad's explosive resignation from the Congress last week.

"Read the contents of his speech. PM Modi was not talking about being sad at my leaving the House. He was talking about an incident," the 73-year-old Azad, who targeted former Congress president Rahul Gandhi mercilessly over his quitting the party, said.

"Some tourists from Gujarat had died in a grenade attack in Kashmir (in 2006), when I was chief minister there. Modi saheb, who was chief minister of Gujarat, called my office. But I was choked up, crying at how brutal the killings were. I could not speak with him. He heard me crying as my staff brought the phone close to me," he recalled.

The attack happened on May 25, 2006, in Srinagar, the capital of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, in which four tourists were killed and six were injured.

"Mr Modi kept calling my office for updates. Later, as I was seeing off the two planes carrying the bodies and those injured, families of the victims were howling in grief. I started weeping too. It came on on TV too. He called but, again, I could not speak," Azad, who served as the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir between 2005 and 2008, said.

Azad, who has been accused by Congress of growing a soft corner for Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party ("GNA's DNA has been Modi-fied", it was said), said he used to think Modi is a cruel man but his opinion changed later.

"I used to think Modi saheb must be a crude man," Azad told reporters in New Delhi, adding, "I thought he won't care... since he does not have a wife or any kids. But, at least, he showed humanity."

Earlier, speaking to NDTV, Azad said he was among senior Congress leaders who disagreed with using the slogan "Chowkidar Hi Chor Hai" against Modi that Rahul Gandhi brought up before the 2019 general elections.

He said the seniors wanted policy-based opposition to PM Modi — who calls himself the "chowkidar" or watchman of the country — but they could not use words such as "chor" (thief) against a prime minister. "That's not our culture," he said.

While speculation is rife that Azad might join the BJP next, he said he would not do any business with the BJP and rather has underlined announcement to form his own party in his home territory Jammu and Kashmir, where elections are likely early next year.

He said he has a different vote bank compared to the BJP and there was no question of them working together.