Azad lauds Indira, says nobody in Cong can carry along three

Indira Gandhi had the capacity to carry three generations of Congress workers and leaders with her, senior party leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said today, lamenting none of its present day protagonists could that now.
"I can say only this... She (Indira Gandhi) had the capacity to carry three generations with her. None of us have the capacity to carry even one generation with us," he said.
Recalling his association with Gandhi as a Youth Congress leader and a minister, and referring to her contributions to the country and the Congress party, he asked the "demoralised" party workers and leaders to seek inspiration from the remarkable life of the former Prime Minister.

Azad's remarks came close on the heels of another senior leader Jairam Ramesh saying Congress was facing an "existential crisis".
"Old slogans don't work, old formulas don't work, old mantras don't work. India has changed, the Congress party has to change," Ramesh had told PTI in a recent interview.
Azad said Congress was now in opposition at the Centre and in many states, and unlike Kerala, most places he visited he found them "very demoralised, very upset". The leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha said he urged them to seek inspiration from the life of Indira Gandhi.

"She had the capacity of working with three generations. None of us have that capacity," Azad told a function organised by Ernakulam District Congress Committee to mark the birth centenary celebrations of Gandhi.

Azad said Gandhi had worked with her father, his ministerial colleagues and party office bearers before working with her own generation and the then the younger generation comprising youth Congress leaders like him.
He praised Congress workers and leaders in Kerala for their role in building the organisation.
"We in Delhi always see Congress in Kerala as an exception. The organisation (in Kerala) cannot be compared to (any other unit), the leaders cannot be compared to those in the rest of the country," he said.