(Each week, The Indian Categorical’ Nationwide Politics Bureau investigates a political get together and its chief, tracks its developments and explains why it issues.)
After sparking a row by saying that he’s a “Gandhi”, a “Nehruvi”, a “Rajiv” however not a “Rahul” as a result of Rahul Gandhi is “a lot youthful than me and much faraway from me in political life”; Mani Shankar Aiyar, veteran Congress chief and former Union minister; He has returned to Delhi and is attempting to get again to his “regular life.”
However the 84-year-old Mr. Aiyar seems to be fighting this effort, having been besieged by members of the media and their calls following a sequence of current abuses towards his get together and get together leaders, together with Mr. Rahul.
Aiyar says his telephone by no means stops ringing. “Each time I decide up the telephone, I get missed calls and messages from totally different folks, a lot of them journalists,” he informed The Indian Categorical as he left his sprawling bungalow in south Delhi after a TV information anchor exchanged pleasantries with him.
It is 10am. However Aiyar hasn’t eaten breakfast but.which appears to have upset his spouse Suneet Mani Aiyar. Aiyar says she does not like journalists visiting her house.
Whereas talking at an occasion for the LDF-led Kerala authorities in Thiruvananthapuram final Sunday, Chief Minister Aiyar mentioned that Kerala is the one state in India the place progress has been made within the ‘Gandhiji course’ and expressed confidence that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan would stay in workplace after the subsequent meeting elections. Aiyar’s assertion has left the get together excessive command and its public relations crew in turmoil because the Congress is eager to return the CPI(M)-led LDF to energy within the state this time after its second consecutive time period.
Pawan Khera, chairman of the media and publicity wing of the All India Congress Committee (AICC), claimed that Mr. Aiyar is not a member of the get together. Insiders within the communications crew informed The Indian Categorical that the Congress is used to “coping with such conditions” involving defecting leaders. “We’ve got sufficient veterans to trigger complications. We all know what to do with them, however it is going to nonetheless require determined selections to handle the state of affairs,” mentioned a senior member of the AICC communications crew.
However Aiyar is unfazed. Sitting in his research with greater than 1,000 books, he might look frail, however he stays as mentally sharp as he was on the top of his profession, when he was one in every of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s closest aides.
A bit of the Congress feels that leaders like Mr. Aiyar are doing extra hurt to the get together than serving to its trigger. Mr. Aiyar rejected this, saying he was not harming the get together. “Kerala is a troublesome problem for the Congress,” he mentioned, including that if the Congress “had given him a chance to make use of the Congress platform…I would not have needed to take this message out in public (again then).”
He’s clearly upset about being faraway from the get together’s highest decision-making physique, the Congress Working Committee (CWC). “For 22 years, I used to be not allowed to talk on the AICC podium,” he says.
The Congress additionally blushed over one other remark by Mr. Aiyar that the opposition India bloc needs to be led by Tamil Nadu CM and DMK president MK Stalin. “For any alliance to work, the convener needs to be from a minor get together, as a result of the main get together, on this case the Congress, is locked in a battle with all its allies within the state. This can not work,” says Aiyar, as he prepares for the day’s actions, which “change from each day.”
His day on Friday seems to be busy. He plans to have lunch with Dutch coverage analysts on the India Worldwide Heart after which head to the Library of Congress to do analysis for his guide.
“My important supply of livelihood is the pension I obtain as a former MP and former IFS (Indian Ministry of Overseas Affairs) worker. I additionally receives a commission for writing columns,” Aiyar says.
“The second factor I’m concerned in nowadays is researching for an upcoming guide on Jinnah’s 1927 Delhi Proposal. I’m utilizing the Nehru Library (Prime Minister’s Museum and Library) and the Congress Library,” he says, having breakfast together with his spouse in his house’s well-designed eating room, surrounded by greenery and vegetation.
Throughout the breakfast, he additionally offers with a “podcast emergency” and is in fixed contact with producers in Srinagar as current information has made his newest podcast “outdated”. Aiyar, who has three podcast exhibits on his YouTube channel, additionally recorded a podcast with senior Congress chief P Chidambaram this week.
Requested whether or not he had ever imagined himself within the present state of affairs the place he was relegated to the margins of parliamentary politics, Aiyar mentioned: “No, I’ve by no means. I’ve all the time imagined that if I lived lengthy sufficient I’d turn out to be an elder statesman who can be revered and honored, however that has been denied me for no cause.”
Mr Aiyar is not any stranger to controversy, however claims his feedback are “all the time taken out of context”. “In 2014 they (Congress) made me a scapegoat. I allegedly mentioned chaiwala pradhan mantri nahi ban sakta hai. I by no means mentioned that. And in 2014 In 9 I mentioned Modi ek neech kisam ka aadmi hai. I by no means mentioned Modi ‘Hey, hai… They twisted it as a result of they wanted a scapegoat. The identical is being finished in Kerala. As a result of they know they’re going to lose,” says a visibly offended Aiyar.
He mentioned he was “livid” over Khera’s comment that Aiyar was not a Congress chief and didn’t characterize the get together and requested him to shut the door as he didn’t need his spouse to listen to his anger. “As a 35-year veteran lawmaker, let me let you know…I’ve been representing the Congress since earlier than Pawan Khela was born,” he mentioned, including, “I’m a member of the PCC. Why cannot Khera watch out together with his phrases?”
“Why does the Congress give a lot significance to me when a TV anchor mentioned I used to be a annoyed octogenarian and everybody forgot about me? That could be a query price asking Mr. Khera…I do not maintain any workplace, however that does not imply I do not characterize the Congress,” says Mr. Aiyar, sitting in his SUV within the parking zone of his bungalow. “I am a totally engaged 80-something. And I am not some outdated junk,” he added earlier than being pushed away.
