Rich tributes paid to late Ahmed Bhai Patel in Jeddah

On 26th November 2020 Intellectual Council of Gulbarga Jeddah chapter, a group of Gulbarga NRIs, based in Jeddah who are basically Congressmen gathered at the residence of Sajid Shaikh, under the leadership of Syed Nasir Khurshid, who also the member of the All India Overseas Cultural Congress, Jeddah in order to pay tribute to their beloved leader, late Ahmed Bhai Patel.

Syed Nasir Khurshid welcomed all the attendees and expressed his views with heavy heart and said, Congress party and India has lost a great leader, who was secular in his nature and character and was treating everyone with respect irrespective of his caste, creed and background.  Shri Ahmed Patel enjoyed a greater role and power in the Congress party, and he was a political advisor to the Sonia Gandhi for a longer time and he acquired this position on the merit basis. He gave a brief political career details of Shri Ahmed Bhai Patel, that Mr. Patel was first time elected to the Lok Sabah at the age of 26 years in the year 1977. While concluding his speech he said we have very prominent personality Mr. Saleem Khaleefa with us, vice chairman, Intellectual council of Gulbarga who is also a loyal congressman, affiliated with congress party from his student life, on the policies, program and secular characters of the party, let’s hear his views.

 Saleem Khaleefa expressed his deep sorrow on the sudden demise of Ahmed Bhai Patel. He explained that Shri Ahmed Patel was a brilliant political leader he had acquired a lot of natural abilities to be called a progressive leader. He was a bridge between all congressmen and the High Command and had an ample respect in the eyes of Sonia Gandhi and all members of Congress Working Committee. He also had good friends in all political parties.

He was one of the most important pillars of the Congress party and was a very loyal and he was never a power monger. He refused to become a cabinet member in UPA I and UPA II, he was very keen to improve the organizational skills of the party and focused his whole life in strengthening the party across the India.  He was a very sensible leader and he got the titles of Chanakya and Sankat Mochak of the party and he proved his abilities on many difficult occasions and recently he played a Chanakya role when he convinced the Congress High Command to extend the support and form the government with the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra, in order to keep the BJP out of power. For me who can replace Ahmed bhai Patil in congress is our Karnataka Congress President Shri D.K. Sivakumar, who has showed his abilities of being a junior Chanakya, CWC should take a decision to give him more powers to take decisions for party at Central level. He was elected three times to Lok Sabah and 5 times to Rajya Sabah. He also served as the president of Pradesh Congress Committee of Gujarat. On his untimely demise, all political leaders, irrespective of their affiliation, including Prime Minister, Modiji expressed deep grief. He ended his speech by saying that, Congress has lost a great leader and it seems very difficult to find a replacement of Mr. Patel in the Congress party. Sonia Gandhi and former prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressed their deep sorrow and grief on the demise of Ahmed bhai Patel. Both acknowledged that he was the most sincere and loyal leader of the congress party, both lost their best friend also.

Sajid Shaikh expressed his deep grief and said, he was an honest leader of the congress party, who always kept himself at low profile, who focused on work only and he was away from the limelight. He had very good relations with media persons and used to meet and greet with respect even to an ordinary person. For him Party was everything he always wanted to remain in the party organization hierarchy. He served party with different capacity for more than 45 years and got the title from the party presidents the most loyal and faithful congress leader in the recent history of the party. He worked with Smt. Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi with his topmost honesty and dedication.

He played a very significant role during UPAI & UPA II, he was one of the policy makers of the government during the Congress government at the center.

Other prominent members who attended this tribute meeting and paid their deep tribute to Mr. Patel, were Abdul Waheed, Syed Hazrath Khadri, Salim Khan, Mohammed Afsar, and Rayyan Khaleefa, while speaking they paid their gratitude, respect, affection and admiration to the departure soul. Meeting ended with the supplication that Allah Almighty forgive his sins and grant him a higher rank in Jannah.