COURTESY HT FEB 10

Modi wells up at emotional RS farewell to Ghulam Nabi Azad
New Delhi : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday heaped praise on Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad by describing him as a leader who cared not just for his party, but also the country and its Parliament, and welled up while describing experiences with the leader whose tenure in the Upper House ends on February 15.

“I am concerned that whoever is appointed on his position may not be able to match up to him,” Modi said, pointing to Azad, who is the Opposition floor leader in the Rajya Sabha. “Posts come, power comes but how to handle these one must learn from Ghulam Nabi Azad.”

Modi’s emotional farewell speech for Azad came while he was talking about the members of the House whose tenures end this month — these include PDP’s Nazir Ahmad Laway and Mir Mohammed Fayyaz and the BJP’s Shamsher Singh Manhas.

In his farewell speech, Azad said he is a proud Indian, and when he reads about circumstances in Pakistan, he feels proud to be a Hindustani Muslim. “If any Muslim should feel proud in the world, it should be the Indian Muslim,” he said.