Mani Shankar Aiyar, the BJP’s star campaigner who ensures a BJP victory in every election, courtesy his distasteful remarks regarding PM Modi and the BJP has once again returned to limelight. It is as though the man, although a senior leader of the Congress party, and confidante of Rahul and Sonia Gandhi, makes it a point to behave as a parasite, and cause immense damage to the grand old party, while being an active member of the same.
The radical demonstrations at Shaheen Bagh in the national capital have been going on for a month now. While no major political players have associated themselves with these protests, Mani Shankar Aiyar is perhaps the first to do so. Notably, Aiyar was in Lahore, Pakistan, only three days before landing at the protest site in Shaheen Bagh. In Pakistan too, the man spread absolute falsities about India, CAA, and the yet to be conceived nationwide-NRC.
Speaking to the protestors at Shaheen Bagh, Aiyar made a clarion call for violence and said that he was ready for sacrifice himself. He also referred to PM Modi and the BJP at large as ‘qaatil’. “I am ready for whatever sacrifices that need to be made. We will see whose hands are stronger, ours or that killer’s”, Aiyar was seen saying.
Delhi goes to polls next month, and the opposition is back to its classic tactics of orchestrating violence and protests at the national capital, in the hope that such acts would hurt the BJP’s poll prospects. The comments by Mani Shankar are in lieu of the same agenda. Prior to the 2014 elections, Aiyar had dismissed any possibility of PM Modi winning the elections, and further called him a chaiwala in a derogatory tone. Then, prior to the 2017 Gujarat elections, the same man had referred to the Prime Minister as a neech. In every election where Mani Shankar Aiyar has cared to open his guttural mouth, the BJP has won handsomely.
This is also not the first time when Aiyar has had a connection with Pakistan, and then opened his mouth. Earlier, Aiyar had invoked help from Pakistan to topple the BJP government in India, and now too, he has landed at a protest site after a visit to Lahore. It is only imperative upon us to speculate towards the relation which he and his party share with Pakistan.
Rest assured, the BJP will make full use of these comments by Aiyar to hit the Congress party hard. Aiyar’s encouragement to the extremist elements at Shaheen Bagh to resort to violence is out for all of us to see.