NEW DELHI: Congress leader Kapil Sibal took a swipe at his party after the government conferred the country’s third-highest civilian award Padma Bhushan to his colleague Ghulam Nabi Azad.
In a tweet, Sibal congratulated Azad and added it is ironic that Congress does not need the latter’s services when the nation recognises his contributions to public life.
Sibal and Azad were among the 23 Congress leaders, who wrote to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi seeking an overhaul of the party in August 2020.
Azad was omitted from the star campaigners’ list for West Bengal, Kerala, Assam, Tamil Nadu, and Puducherry elections last year. His name is on the list for the February-March Uttar Pradesh assembly polls.
Former Union minister Anand Sharma also congratulated Azad for what he described “well-deserved recognition of his lifelong enriching contribution to public service and Parliamentary democracy”.
Shashi Tharoor, another signatory to the letter leader, said it is good to be recognised for one’s public service even by a government of the other side.
Another Congress leader Jairam Ramesh took a jibe at Azad while referring to former West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s refusal to accept Padma Bhushan. He said it is the right thing to do as “the communist leader (Bhattacharjee) wants to be ‘Azad not Ghulam’”.