New Delhi: Senior Congress leader Anand Sharma Sunday stepped down as the chairperson of the party’s foreign affairs department, citing the need to entrust younger leaders with the charge.
Sharma, who was appointed to the post in August 2018 when Rahul Gandhi was serving as the president of the Congress, remains a member of the party’s working committee—its highest decision-making forum.
“As I have conveyed earlier both to Congress President and Chairperson Congress Parliamentary Party 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,” Sharma wrote in his resignation letter.
While Mallikarjun Kharge is the party president, Sonia Gandhi is the chairperson of the Congress parliamentary party.
Sharma was the Congress leadership’s only choice that had made the cut for being part of the Centre’s multi-party delegations formed in the aftermath of Operation Sindoor to argue India’s case in various world capitals.
However, over the last few years, he has found himself at odds with the party leadership, including Rahul Gandhi, over many issues.
Earlier this month, after Rahul, currently the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, remarked that he agreed with US President Donald Trump’s assessment that the Indian economy was “dead”, Sharma took a divergent view.
“President Trump has triggered an upheaval and caused unprecedented disruption in the world order by his utterances and actions. His comments on India and its Economy are belittling and unacceptable. India has withstood pressures & threats in the past, & emerged stronger. President Trump is mistaken that India does not have options. As the fourth largest economy India has resilience & inherent strength to engage with the world on principles of equality & mutual respect…” Sharma wrote on X on 4 August.
President Trump has triggered an upheaval and caused unprecedented disruption in the world order by his utterances and actions. His comments on India and its Economy are belittling and unacceptable. (1/4)
— Anand Sharma (@AnandSharmaINC) August 4, 2025
Sharma, who was the minister of commerce and industry in UPA II, was in the Rajya Sabha till April 2022. As part of the party’s G-23 ginger group in 2021, he had also sought sweeping reforms in the organisation.
Last year, he was reportedly upset after being overlooked for renomination to the Upper House from Himachal Pradesh. In March 2024, Sharma had written to Kharge, questioning the Congress’s demand for nationwide caste census, which is the central focus of Rahul Gandhi’s politics.
Sharma had written that a caste census would not just amount to a “fundamental departure” from its long-standing policy, but can also be “misconstrued” as disrespecting the legacy of former prime ministers Indira and Rajiv Gandhi.
Reacting to reports of the resignation, his colleague in the foreign affairs department, Chandigarh MP Manish Tewari, said that Sharma’s understanding of foreign affairs is astute and incisive, especially on Africa.
“As we were together on the same politico-strategic delegation together in End May – early June 2025 we were greatly benefited by his insights . He has spent close to five and a half decades of his life in the service of Indian National Congress. Wishing him a very healthy and fulfilling life,” Tewari wrote on X.
Had the pleasure and honour of working with @AnandSharmaINC for over four decades.
His understanding of Foreign Affairs is astute. Especially on Africa the depth of his knowledge is incisive.
As we were together on the same politico- strategic delegation together in End May -… https://t.co/AVKVGe8YFR
— Manish Tewari (@ManishTewari) August 10, 2025
In his resignation letter, Sharma also said that 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 Indian Youth Congress president. These included: NAM youth conference 1985 and the historic ‘Anti Apartheid Conference’ in 1987. These were universally acclaimed,” he wrote.
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)
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