Several state Congress media accounts on Monday evening shared images of party leader Mani Shankar Aiyar on their respective Twitter pages, but without any caption or context. The official Twitter account of UP Congress was the first one to share Aiyar’s image, followed by Telangana Congress and Chhattisgarh Congress units who shared different images of the party stalwart.
The development came against the background of PM Modi’s blistering attack against the Congress party during his speech on Motion of Thanks to President in Lok Sabha. Pulling no punches, PM Modi called out the Congress party for its secessionist inclinations and tagged the party as the leader of the ‘Tukde Tukde Gang’. Modi also lambasted the Congress party for inciting migrant workers to breach lockdown curbs and head back to their native places in the midst of the first wave of coronavirus outbreak in India.
While there was no context or caption mentioned in the pictures shared by official Twitter accounts of state Congress units, it is not difficult to interpret what Congress units wanted to convey with those images. By sharing pictures of Aiyar, a controversial leader who is notorious for repeatedly making obnoxious and crass remarks against PM Modi, Congress tried to imply that Modi deserves Aiyar, not in the sense of a political opponent but in the manner he targets Modi with abuses and vicious remarks.
However, in the process, Congress betrayed their inner feeling that translates to ‘an India that votes for PM Modi deserves contemptuous attitude and should be treated with scorn and disdain.’ And what is that attitude that Congress social media accounts are tacitly advocating by sharing images of Mani Shankar Aiyar?
Colonised mindset that continues to see India as a third-world country
For the Congress party, India continues to remain a third-world country that needs to be ‘civilised’. Apparently, this is the same ideology that the Britishers harboured in justifying the morality of their rule over India. Even today, apologists of the British Raj in India claim the two centuries of atrocities and depredations had a salutary effect of uniting disparate groups together and engendering a sense of nation-state in them.
The likes of Aiyar live in an India that has not recovered from its post-colonial hangover. They still firmly believe that they are legitimate inheritors of British rule, a notion that has borne out of their contempt for the ‘unwashed masses’ in India, who they think are not capable of making informed decisions on their own. In a way, Aiyar epitomises these ‘brown sahibs’ who are still looking to rule over the natives, just because they know good English.
A mindset that has no qualms allying with Pakistan to ‘remove Modi’
Congress also does not seem to have any compunction allying with sworn enemies of the country if that can bring them back to the corridors of power, which was reflected in Mani Shankar Aiyar’s famous interview with a Pakistani media channel where he said that Modi had to be removed in order to restore relations between India and Pakistan. The statement was construed by many as soliciting help from Pakistan for defenestrating PM Modi. But as Congress’ endorsement for Mani Shankar Aiyar illustrates, they have no qualms in teaming up with Pakistan to fulfil their political objectives.
Ironically, this is exactly what PM Modi said in the Parliament while attacking the Congress party. He said Congress can go to any extent in their bid to return to power in the Centre. There have been several occasions, especially after PM Modi’s ascension to Centre, that Congress’ stance on many issues has converged with that of Pakistan’s. With Congress state units’ endorsement of Mani Shankar Aiyar, it won’t be a stretch to say that the party won’t mind joining hands with enemies of the nation to dislodge Modi from the Prime Minister’s office.
A mindset that comes up with barbs like chaiwala and neech for people who are born in modest families
The use of Mani Shankar Aiyar’s images also reflects a mindset that comes up with insults like ‘chaiwallah’ and ‘neech’ for people who are not born with a silver spoon and have risen through the ranks on the back of sheer hard work. In the run-up to the 2014 General elections, Mani Shankar had derogatorily referred to PM aspirant Modi as ‘chaiwallah’ to assert that a ‘chaiwallah’ can’t assume the highest office in the country. He was proven catastrophically wrong when the BJP stormed into power with an absolute majority. 5 years, in 2019, Aiyar was proven wrong yet again when the BJP returned with an even thumping majority, bagging a staggering 303 seats on their own.
However, this does not take away from the fact how Aiyar had belittled and insulted a PM aspirant simply because he belonged from a humble background and was not a product of dynastic nepotism. In addition to this, Aiyar also used casteist slurs against PM Modi, describing him as ‘neech aadmi‘ in December 2017. Years later, Aiyar justified his comment, saying the 2019 general elections would prove what he had said in December 2017. According to Aiyar and Congress, people belonging to modest families have no right to occupy PM’s post because that according to them is only the preserve of the Gandhi family members or loyalists who are subservient to the Gandhi family.
Even as the Congress state units did not include a caption, context or explanation along with the images of Mani Shankar Aiyar, the mindset that prompted them to choose Aiyar as a potent leader counter to Modi shows that they have got absolute and unqualified contempt for the country that is led by a non-Congress government and presided over by a non-Gandhi.
