Move over PM Modi, BJP’s star campaigner has hit the ground running again.

No matter how much of an impact prime minister Modi or BJP president Amit Shah make before an election, there has been an unmissable trend since 2014 of a senior Congress politician making an unsavoury remark and inviting electoral backlash. It would be a travesty of justice if we give the entire credit for BJP’s juggernaut entirely to prime minister Modi and Amit Shah. There have been the overshadowed yet highly instrumental Congress leaders who by his uncanny ability to make the Congress lose from any position, has taken BJP to new highs.

One of the biggest BJP assets within the Congress is Mani Shankar Aiyar. He has undoubtedly earned a reputation of landing Congress in deep trouble and designing embarrassing defeats for the Congress. It seems that Aiyar is at it again. This time around, he has courted another controversy which will be too hot for the Congress to handle in the run up to Karnataka assembly elections. Even as the country feels disgusted by Jinnah portrait in AMU, Aiyar has defended the display of portrait in AMU, that too on Pakistan soil. While speaking at an event in Pakistan, Aiyar bad mouthed India before the hostile neighbour. He stated that Hindu goons removed the portrait of the quaid​-e-azam (Jinnah​ is referred to as quaid​-e-azam in​ Pakistan as a mark of respect). The top Congress leader did not stop here. While speaking to Republic TV, he suggested that Jinnah was a part of the Indian freedom movement and cherished his connection with India. However, one fails to understand how Jinnah cherished this connection by choosing to carry out the direct action day leading to killing of thousands of Indian Hindus and Sikhs and the mass raping of women in a ghastly manner. This is bound to have repercussions for the Congress. People won’t accept a party that supports mass murderers and genocides for appeasing a particular community and maintaining electoral arithmetic. This is not for the first time that Aiyar has exposed Congress’ pro-Pakistan and anti-India ideology. In 2015, he had begged Pakistan to  help  Congress  in  dislodging  the Modi government that had totally exposed Congress’ illegitimate affection for Pakistan.

For almost two decades, Mani Shankar Aiyar has been doing the job of landing Congress in deep trouble. He has done it time and again and it is not possible to mention them in a single article. In one of his earliest, faux pas, he referred to the then prime minister Vajpayee, ​nalayak ​(a derogatory remark loosely translating as incompetent). Facing public backlash, Aiyar took the lame defence that he does not understand Hindi. Twenty years later, Aiyar who still does not understand Hindi but for reasons best known to him, kept using a language that he does not understand, and called the current prime minister Modi ​neech. ​The Congress and Mani Shankar Aiyar not only faced heat from an eloquent prime minister Modi but also from the electorate for indulging in such condemnable politics against one of the most popular prime ministers till date. However, the moment that defines Mani Shankar Aiyar is the ​chaiwala ​barb made by Aiyar before the 2014 elections. This ultimately led to the Congress facing the worst ever result at general elections and being reduced to the status of a party that plays second fiddle to regional players, that too only if the regional players allow them to.

The shameful remark made by Mani Shankar Aiyar has already led to the Congress facing unmanageable heat. In massive assault BJP president Amit Shah has questioned the telepathy between the Congress and Pakistan especially in the run up to elections. Referring to the Congress-Pakistan meet before Gujarat elections, Amit Shah has highlighted the pattern of Congress seeking Pakistani involvement prior to crucial elections. Aiyar has lived up to his reputation and has again given the BJP, a decisive push towards a grand victory.