The history of parliamentary democracy in India has produced orators, administrators and survivors. It has rarely produced a figure who has been all three at once. Ghulam Nabi Azad belongs to that rare category. At a time when politics is driven by polarisation and performance, Azad represents a vanishing school of leadership - patient, institutional and anchored in the belief that politics is ultimately about accommodation, not annihilation.
Born in the remote Bhaderwah valley of Doda, Azad's ascent was not scripted by lineage or by the mobilisation of the street. It was crafted through organisation, an old-fashioned virtue that has little currency today. For anyone who has observed New Delhi from within, Azad has long personified the crisis-manager - the man dispatched at midnight to salvage a government, stitch an alliance or calm a legislature.
His tenure as Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir from 2005 to 2008, though brief, left an imprint that outlived his government. Confronted with a bureaucracy accustomed to delay and projects that had languished for decades, he introduced a simple administrative innovation: the double-shift system. Departments were directed to work in two shifts to ensure that construction did not stop with sunset. It was through this mechanism that many long-pending works - the new Legislative Assembly complex in Jammu, the Haj House, college buildings and district infrastructure - were completed in record time. The creation of eight new districts during this period was equally significant. It was an attempt to bring the administration closer to the peripheries. It was also during his tenure that the Indira Gandhi Memorial Tulip Garden, now Asia's largest, was opened in Srinagar in 2007, giving Kashmir a new symbol of tourism.
As Union Minister for Health, Azad brought the same systemic thinking to a different arena. He was not a physician, but he understood public health as a problem of delivery. Under his stewardship, the National Rural Health Mission was expanded with substantive budgetary support. Later, he sanctioned five new medical colleges and two super-speciality hospitals for his home state, institutions that continue to shape medical education in Jammu and Kashmir.
In Parliament, Azad was a study in economy. Whether as Minister for Parliamentary Affairs or as Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, he never confused length with logic. His speeches were marked by brevity, data and courtesy - a capacity to challenge an argument without abusing the opponent. The tearful farewell accorded to him by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in February 2021 was not mere theatre. It was a recognition across ideological lines that some individuals preserve the civility of the institution itself.
If there is one principle that has defined his political method, it is negotiability. In a career that saw him manage the Congress party's affairs in states as diverse as Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, Azad's dictum remained consistent: politics is less about taking a stand than about finding a way forward.
Like any long career in public administration, his tenure also invited questions, whether on the long-term quality of fast-tracked construction or on the financial implications of administrative expansion. Such questions are part of any fair institutional assessment.
His decision to leave the Congress after five decades and form the Democratic Progressive Azad Party in 2022 was read by many as a rupture. Seen through the prism of leadership, however, it was an assertion of a different kind - the willingness to walk alone when conscience so demands.
For a generation of young Kashmiris coming of age in an era of noise, Azad offers a counter-model. He demonstrates that one can come from the margins and still arrive at the centre without having to shout. That longevity in public life is less about charisma and more about character.
What our times reward is noise. What our times need is nuance. Azad's career is a reminder that sustainable leadership is not built on slogans. It is built quietly, through files cleared, institutions strengthened and bridges constructed - both over rivers and between peoples.
A personal note: I have never been an ardent follower of politics, nor am I affiliated with any party. Yet some personalities leave a lasting impression. As a child, I remember watching his parliamentary speeches on television; even then, his composure and clarity stood out. That respect remains unchanged today, even after I have matured. Such leaders are not made every day; they come once in a generation.

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