Nine months after suspending controversial Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar for referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi as ‘neech insan‘, the party has now revoked his suspension. This was not the first time Aiyar had made such casteist and elitist remarks. Mani Shankar Aiyar is widely believed to have helped Modi in his 2014 campaign when he used the term “chaiwala” (tea seller) as an insult for the then BJP Prime Ministerial candidate.
In many such previous instances, Congress functionaries have been seen grabbing on to such photo opportunities by making controversial statements. Aiyar himself was found shaming India in Pakistan when he hailed Mohammad Ali Jinnah for his role in freedom movement and even referred to him as Quaid-e-Azam while defending him for his role in the partition. Earlier he had called for the support of Pakistan to not only remove the current government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi but also to help Congress come to power.
Aiyar is not the only one who has been caught on the wrong foot making embarrassing comments. Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad too has made a casteist statement on PM Modi by referring to him as ‘Gangu Teli’ (Modi belongs to the Teli caste). Congress leader Jairam Ramesh referred to PM Modi as ‘Bhasmasur’ during the run up to 2014 elections, a mythological demon.
Congress General Secretary, Digvijay Singh had caught the spotlight a few years back when while praising a fellow party secretary, Meenakshi Natrajan at a rally in Madhya Pradesh he referred to her as ‘a 100 percent tunch maal’. (Translated from Bhojpuri, the remark roughly means ‘100 percent sexy woman’.) Digvijay Singh, had earlier too, hogged on all the limelight when in 2010, he released the book 26/11 RSS Ki Saazish? (26/11, An RSS Conspiracy?) in Mumbai. Prior to this, he had also stirred a strong storm of criticism triggered by his comments linking the killing of Maharashtra ATS chief Hemant Karkare during the 26/11 terror attacks to the alleged threats Karkare had received from Hindu extremists.
Congress MP Sanjay Nirupam had also raised a strife by bad-mouthing BJP MP Smriti Irani in December 2012, when assembly election results of Gujarat was announced saying, “It’s only four days of your entry into politics and you have become a political analyst. Aap toh TV pe thumke lagati thi, Aaj chunavi vishleshak ban gayi.” (You used to dance on TV screen, now you are a political analyst?)
Not to be left too behind, Congress President Rahul Gandhi himself had once referred to PM Modi as ‘khoon ka dalal‘ after the surgical strikes.
With politicians, who are the so-called guardians of our country, stooping to such low levels, one is left to wonder what are we offering to our future generations!
