Veteran Congress leader Anand Sharma resigns as chairman of party's foreign affairs department

Mint

12 hours ago

Veteran Congress leader Anand Sharma resigned as the chairman of the Grand Old Party's foreign affairs department on Sunday to help in its reconstitution and enable bringing in younger leaders.
The former Union minister led the department for around a decade, as the National Committee of the Department of Foreign Affairs was last constituted in 2018.
"As I have conveyed earlier, both to CP and Chairperson CPP, in my considered view, the committee needs to be reconstituted to bring in younger leaders of potential and promise. That will ensure continuity in its functioning.
"Expressing my gratitude to the party leadership for having entrusted me with this responsibility, I am submitting my resignation as Chairman DFA (Department of Foreign Affairs) to facilitate its reconstitution," Sharma said in his resignation letter addressed to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge.
Sharma, a member of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), the highest decision-making body in the party, has been the Congress's leading face on international affairs for almost four decades.
He, however, continues to be a member of the Congress.
– Sharma has earlier played a crucial role in the negotiations of the Indo-US nuclear deal, pitched for India-specific waivers at the Nuclear Suppliers Group and is also credited with institutionalising the India-Africa partnership in a structured manner and convening the first India-Africa summit.
– He also articulated India's position to the world after the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.
– During Sharma's tenure as the commerce minister, the first-ever WTO Agreement and comprehensive trade agreements were signed.
– Sharma, along with Manish Tiwari and Shashi Tharoor, were part of the multi-party Parliamentary delegations that had gone abroad to put across India's viewpoint on Operation Sindoor.
Even though the Congress had forwarded the names of Anand Sharma, Gaurav Gogoi and Naseer Hussain to be part of the delegations, the government had nominated only Anand Sharma, besides taking Tharoor and Tiwari.
In a post on X, Manish Tewari, "Had the pleasure and honour of working with Anand Sharma for over four decades. His understanding of Foreign Affairs is astute. Especially in Africa, the depth of his knowledge is incisive."
"As we were together on the same politico-strategic delegation together in end May-early June 2025, we greatly benefited from his insights. He has spent close to five and a half decades of his life in the service of Congress. Wishing him a very healthy and fulfilling life," he added.
In his resignation letter, Sharma said the DFA has, over the last few decades, been actively engaged in building and strengthening the Congress's relations with like-minded political parties across the world, which share the values of democracy, equality and human rights.
He said the Congress has built strong relations with major political parties in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Europe and Latin America. The foreign affairs department of the party has established an institutional mechanism for the exchange of leadership delegations with fraternal political parties and international organisations.
"I have had the privilege to have been proactively associated with all major international initiatives of the Congress since the mid-1980s as IYC president. These included: NAM youth conference 1985 and the historic 'Anti Apartheid Conference' in 1987. These were universally acclaimed," Sharma said.
He also said the Congress successfully convened the historic Satyagraha centenary conference in January 2007 and an international conference on the 125th birth anniversary of Jawaharlal Nehru in November 2014, which were attended by eminent world leaders. These conferences, chaired by then Congress president Sonia Gandhi, received worldwide acclaim.