Congress leaders seem to be visibly divided over the Padma Bhushan award conferred to party veteran from Jammu and Kashmir Ghulam Nabi Azad. In the latest development, senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal has come out in support of Ghulam Nabi Azad after cryptic tweets by former environment minister Jairam Ramesh.

“Ghulam Nabi Azad conferred Padam Bhushan, Congratulations bhaijan, Ironic that the Congress doesn’t need his services when the nation recognizes his contributions to public life,” Sibal said in a tweet. In an apparent taunt to Azad, Jairam Ramesh, on Tuesday, tweeted former West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya’s tweet refusing to accept the Padma award, and said –  “Right thing to do. He wants to be Azad, not Ghulam.”

A former union minister, Azad was the leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha. He has also been one of the first leaders from the Congress party to highlight the leadership crisis in the party. The visible divide within the Congress party comes from the fact that Azad, along with other senior leaders of the G-23 group openly wrote letters to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, expressing displeasure over the state of affairs in the grand old party.

No change in bio: Azad

He had also demanded organizational elections in order to address the leadership issue in INC. Meanwhile, shortly after his name was announced for the Padma Bhushan, reports surfaced that Azad’s Twitter bio was changed. He, however, refuted the claims and called the reports a ‘mischievous propaganda’.

“Some mischievous propaganda being circulated by some people to create confusion. Nothing has been removed or added to my Twitter profile. The profile is as it was earlier,” Azad said.