Will be difficult to replace Ahmed Bhai's omnipresent, omniscient presence (Tribute)
Nov 25, 2020
By Salman Khurshid
New Delhi [India], November 25 : The passing of Ahmed Patel known to all as Ahmed Bhai is the saddest event for a very long time. The go-to person for any personal or institutional crisis leaves behind innumerable known and anonymous beneficiaries of his generosity and sagacity.
The grief and sorrow will be handled as indeed human being are bound to deal with their recurrence in life. But then will things for us in the Congress ever be the same?
Visiting his house to bid goodbye, alas in his absence due to strict Covid-19 regulations, one saw masked familiar faces that had been part of the world he sustained and nurtured. Below the surface the complex relationships that form the party were known to him like the palm of his hand. How many times and where he might have intervened to help, counsel, encourage or reassure would be known to him and the person concerned.
All we know that it will be difficult to replace his omnipresent, omniscient presence in the party. He will be missed by our leaders as indeed by loyal party workers. As we gathered to lend our presence for the final farewell to the person who was always there to guide arrangements for good times and low times the irony is stark.
The Congress party will miss Ahmed Bhai in whom we saw the invincibility and sustenance of our ideological beliefs and secrets of our organisational strength. We are all much diminished in the untimely demise of the gentle giants of our times.
(Salman Khurshid is a senior Congress leader and former Union Minister)
