Rahul's tearing of ordinance in 2013 led to party's defeat, undermined PM's authority: Azad

New Delhi, Aug 26 (IANS) Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad in his resignation letter has blamed the tearing of ordinance by Rahul Gandhi in September 2013 as a 'reason for the defeat of the party'.

"One of the most glaring examples of this immaturity was the tearing up of a government ordinance in the full glare of the media by Shri Rahul Gandhi. The said ordinance was incubated in the Congress Core Group and subsequently unanimously approved by the Union Cabinet presided over by the Prime Minister of India and duly approved even by the President of India. This 'childish' behavior completely subverted the authority of the Prime Minister and Government of India."

He alleged that this one single action more than anything else contributed significantly to the defeat of the UPA government in 2014 that was at the receiving end of a campaign of "calumny and insinuation from a combination of the forces of the right wing and certain unscrupulous corporate interests".

Azad also mentioned his association of 50 long years with the party in the letter. He said that he was the Congress Parliamentary Board member headed by Rajiv Gandhi and P.V. Narasimha Rao till Rao decided not to reconstitute the Congress Parliamentary Board in October 1992.

He said he has been a member of the Congress Working Committee continuously for nearly four decades both in an elected and a nominated capacity and as the AICC General Secretary In-charge of every state and Union Territory of the country at one point of time or the other over the last 35 years.

"I am happy to state that INC won 90 per cent of the states that he was in-charge from time to time," he said

The veteran leader said he has done selfless service just to underscore his life long association with this great institution that he has also served recently as the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha for seven years.

"I joined the Indian National Congress in Jammu & Kashmir in mid 1970's when it was still a taboo to be associated with the party given it's chequered history in the state from 8 August 1953 onwards the arrest of Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah being the nadir of it's political myopia," he said.

He said as the National President of IYC in 1980 he had the privilege of inducting Rajiv Gandhi into the Indian Youth Congress as a member of the National Council.

"I have also had the opportunity of serving as a General Secretary in the AICC with every President of the Indian National Congress since the mid 1980s," he added.