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| Edited By: DNA Web Team |Source: DNA webdesk |Updated: Sep 04, 2022, 08:03 AM IST
Days after Ghulam Nabi Azad announced that he will be launching his own political party and won’t join any rival parties, he also gave a reply to Congress over the “Modi-fied” DNA remark made against him when he decided to leave the party after almost five decades.
Slamming the Congress party, former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said that meeting and talking to political rivals doesn’t change one’s DNA. This comes after the Congress had insinuated that he was cozying up to Prime Minister Narendra Modi after he left the party.
After Azad ended his five-decade-long association with the Congress last month, the party had alleged that his "DNA has been Modi-fied" and several leaders attacked him citing Modi's speech in Rajya Sabha in February last year in which the teary-eyed prime minister had praised Azad as a "true friend".
During a book release function, Ghulam Nabi Azad said that the MPs from 22 parties spoke about him during his farewell but only the gestures and words of PM Modi were highlighted by the Congress after he left the party.
"If you meet people from other political parties and talk to them, it does not change your DNA," he said and lamented that political parties nowadays seem to be "at war".
Referring to Modi's emotional speech, Azad said it's a tradition that one-third of members retire from Rajya Sabha every two years and MPs from various parties give speeches on the occasion. He further said the composite culture of India has changed over the years.
"Hindus and Muslims stayed together... It was not unusual for Hindus to study Arabic and Muslims to study the Gita. This was our country's composite culture," he said. Earlier, only two occasions were celebrated in Delhi's political circles -- Eid Milan and Diwali Milan -- he said.
After nearly five decades as a member of Congress, Ghulam Nabi Azad resigned from all party posts and membership of the party, slamming the leadership of Rahul Gandhi in a five-page long letter, where he termed his behavior as “childish” and “immature”.
(With PTI inputs)
