India’s tumultuous political history, revealing backroom stories, humorous anecdotes and invaluable life lessons come together in Azaad, Ghulam Nabi Azad’s frank, unflinching autobiography about his life and career alongside some of the most powerful leaders from India and the world. As Ghulam Nabi charts his political odyssey, he showcases the grand arc of the great India story through the most dramatic political transformations of the last five decades. The heart of this autobiography is devoted to his half a century-old association with the Congress party. He offers candid, captivating accounts of his relationship with the members of the Gandhi Parivar—former Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, Sanjay, Maneka, Sonia Gandhi and her children, Rahul and Priyanka. From devising a strategy with Indira Gandhi to bring Rajiv into politics and convincing Sonia to become the party chief to his mediation efforts in the tussle between Rahul Gandhi and Himanta Biswa Sarma—Ghulam Nabi explores the challenges of leadership and the consequences of daring to bring fresh thinking into the political landscape. He also offers a personal perspective of working in government and in Opposition. He does not pull his punches, offering his unvarnished opinions on leading politicians from across the political divide—from his confrontation and comradeship with former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao and Sitaram Kesri, political tricks played by N.D. Tiwari and Mufti Mohammad Sayeed to his personal equation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Insightful, intimate and utterly entertaining, Azaad is Ghulam Nabi’s own journey, in his own words. It is a book that belongs on the reading list of every political aficionado. AUTHOR OF THE BOOK Ghulam Nabi Azad is chairman of the Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP). A former member of the Indian National Congress (INC), he joined the party as block general secretary in Kashmir in 1973. During his 50-year-long association with the Congress, he has held multiple positions including state president, general secretary, and thereafter national president of the Indian Youth Congress (IYC). He was general secretary of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) a record number of times and member of the Congress Parliamentary Board (CPB) and Congress Working Committee (CWC) for more than three-and-a-half decades. He has served as a Union Minister in the governments of Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, P.V. Narasimha Rao and Dr Manmohan Singh, both during UPA I and II, respectively, from 1982 till 2014. The seventh chief minister of Jammu & Kashmir from 2005 to 2008, Azad served as the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha for seven years till his retirement in February 2021. He resigned from primary membership of the Congress party in August 2022 and launched his own regional party.