New Delhi, Dec 20 (UNI) Senior Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar has alleged that some “enemies” within the party are actually causing harm from inside and the results of this can be seen as party stalwart Sonia Gandhi was unaware when some individuals including himself were suspended from the outfit.
In a candid interview with veteran journalist Karan Thapar on his book ‘A Maverick in Politics’, the senior Congress leader claimed to have had a close relationship with the Gandhi family, dating back to the time of Rajiv Gandhi, and mentioned that Sonia Gandhi was not aware of his suspension when he discussed it with her.
He said when he called up Sonia Gandhi after a few years, she said that she was not aware about his suspension that happened in December 2017. Aiyar further said that when he again went through his suspension letter, he found that the action was taken by the party’s disciplinary action committee.
Aiyar, however, said he never considered his and Pranab Mukherjee’s suspension without the leadership being aware as “bizarre”.
“I don’t think bizarre is normal in Congress, but mistakes do take place. There is an organisation, which really needs revamping, and the revamping had not taken place and many individuals take devolved power as their own and make decisions that harm the party,” Aiyar said.
The former diplomat said the downslide of the UPA-2 and Congress party began in 2012 and attributed the mass movement led by social activist Anna Hazare and the health issues faced by key leadership figures, especially the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi, as contributing factors for it.
Aiyar acknowledged the party’s significant decline, stating that the downslide had continued to such an extent that it “could not be pulled back.”
“In 2012, Manmohan Singh fell ill and underwent six bypasses and Sonia Gandhi too fell ill and went abroad for treatment. With this the Congress party became leaderless and the government too became leaderless. In the middle of that came the ‘India against corruption’ campaign of Anna Hazare. The whole of the UPA-2 started falling apart and there was no one available to pull it back again,” the former diplomat said.
Recalling the “humiliating defeat” of the Congress in the 2014 Lok Sabha election, Aiyar said if in 2012 Manmohan Singh would have been made the President of the country and Pranab Mukherjee the Prime Minister, the party’s seat count would not have plummet to just 44 seats.
“We may still have lost, but I don’t think we would have sunk to 44 seats, we may have been around 144 seats. Nobody anticipated that the 2014 elections would be such a disaster for the Congress party though defeat was possible but humiliating defeat was not anticipated and came as a big shock when it happened,” the senior Congress leader said.
In the interview he praised Sonia Gandhi for supporting him and making him the Cabinet Minister despite objections from within the party.
On his comment of calling Modi a “Chaiwala”, Aiyar clarified that he never called Modi a “Chaiwala”, infact his words were twisted by Modi himself.
On his relationship with Rahul Gandhi, Aiyar said “Rahul has high regards for me. But he considers me as a political liability and does not want to see me in Parliament because I am too old”.
