Very difficult for a young Muslim leader to aspire to be India’s Prime Minister: Azad

Azad’s comments in Rajya Sabha came over two years after he spoke about the vitiated atmosphere in the country in a speech at the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) in 2018

Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad has said it is very difficult for a young Muslim leader to aspire to be the Prime Minister of India. “I do not foresee it in the near future; maybe a few decades,” Azad said in an interview to HT days after he made an emotional farewell speech in Rajya Sabha saying if any Muslim should feel proud in the world, it should be the Indian Muslim.

Congress MP Ghulam Nabi Azad. (PTI)

Azad’s comments in Rajya Sabha came over two years after he spoke about the vitiated atmosphere in the country in a speech at the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) in 2018. In his address to AMU alumni, Azad had said the number of even Hindu Congress candidates inviting him to campaign for them in elections has reduced drastically as people were “afraid”.

When asked why he referred to the Indian Muslim after his comments in 2018, Azad said he had said in AMU that the atmosphere in the country is so vitiated that contrary to the past where 99% of Hindu candidates would invite him to campaign for them to get the Muslim vote, the number of invitations has gone down to 40%. Azad added his message was also to the AMU alumni gathered there that it is their job to be ambassadors, and to bring that India back. He said it was that India where he contested the 1979 national election from Maharashtra with a 95% Hindu electorate and won. “There was a Janata Party Hindu candidate against me, but I still won.”