The following article was written for MyInd Makers. Pasting it here for reference:
The entire English media cabal was thrilled yesterday. Their hero showed his rudra-avatar. After simultaneously playing victim card and demanding that Mr. Mani Shankar Aiyar apologize for his abusive language against the Prime Minister of the country, he went a step further and suspended Mr. Aiyar from the Congress party. The cabal erupted in celebration – “The new Congress has arrived”, “Rahul Gandhi has arrived” (yet again!), “Game On”, we were told! And in this melee, they forgot to tell us many things about Mani Shankar Aiyar.
His abusive and condescending behavior is nothing new. In 2013, on an NDTV debate (those were the days when we used to watch NDTV!), he toldTavleen Singh that “you sucked up to me”. I tweeted regarding this to the then CEO, Vikram Chandra, who was talking about unacceptable terms in use on twitter. Mani Shankar Aiyar continued to be a panelist for NDTV for a very long time, and has also been on the “Communication Strategy” of the Congress party till as recently as June 2017.
Or read this poignant recollection by Ashok Malik (yet again on NDTV):
“ In the mid-1990s, Aiyar was a columnist with India Today magazine and it was this writer's job to edit and put to page his articles. One week, he began a piece with the sentence, "Each time S. Jaipal Reddy opens his mouth, he puts his crutch into it." The line would leave most readers cringing, especially since Reddy, then a minister in the United Front government, is physically challenged and walks with a crutch.
I phoned Aiyar and urged him to change the line. He refused, protested, screamed and insisted my request amounted to censorship.”
Do you feel cringeworthy? Can you imagine how the Congress has helped groom him, gave him ministries, made him a representative of the party and the entire english media cabal happily invited him to their studios (and perhaps their parties?). What words do we need to use to describe such a man? Well, we have NDTV (yet again) to our rescue!
“Mani Shankar Aiyar has always been feisty. But I suspect he is now overdoing it.”
This tweet is by Mr. Vikram Chandra. In Jan 2014. Notice the choice of words. “Feisty”, as if it is some badge of honour. “Suspect he is overdoing” – Suspect? This is not even after the chaiwala comment he had made on Narendra Modi. This is regarding his continued diatribes even after making those chaiwala comment. All that the English media could muster against Mr. Aiyer is that he “has always been feisty”.
Or did you know that he was a “fine mind” and a “great debater”, just losing his way?
“Sad a fine mind like Mani Shankar chose to personalize again what was actually a very good debate. Led to Ravi Shankar walking out. Sad.”
If one were to have the patience to pull out excerpts from all those debates he has participated on TV, the exhaustive list of abuses would translate into a fat book. As difficult as it is to pick up the worst of his abuses, how can anyone of us want to forget his “Hafiz saab” reverence? He found it fit enough to address the most wanted criminal in India as “saab”. Worse yet, he wanted the Pakistanis to “remove Mr. Modi. In his own words, “aap Modi ko hatao”. Why will Pakistan “remove” our Prime Minister? What did he mean by “removing” the Prime Minister of India? No one bothered to sack him then. No one bothered to ask him to apologize then. In fact, the Congress party went on to tell us that he said no such thing! And rewarded him with a party position in 2017, for his yeomen services to the party.
His latest diatribe, calling Modi as “Neech kism ka aadmi” apparently came after Mr. Modi accused the Congress of undermining Dr. Ambedkar’s legacy. I keep wondering what is wrong in what Mr. Modi said? The Congress party put up candidates to fight against Dr. Ambedkar in 1952 and 1957. Dr. Ambedkar lost both the elections. Congress party ensured that Dr. Ambedkar never entered the Parliament since 1952. Congress party never saw it fit, till a very long time, to award him a Bharat Ratna too! But we are digressing.
Mr. Aiyar’s “neech kisam ke aadmi” comment is not an aberration. As much as the English media cabal wants to rejoice at the newfound aggression of their leader, Mani Aiyar’s suspension means nothing for anyone. What needs to be reflected upon, is the fact that he has been allowed to abuse so many people, for so long.
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