NEW DELHI: Senior Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar was
suspended on Thursday from the primary membership of the party for
calling Prime Minister Narendra Modi a “neech aadmi” (a vile man), a
remark that Mr Modi said was aimed at his humble origins, NDTV said.
Congress
vice president Rahul Gandhi had pulled up Mr Aiyar during the day and
asked him to apologise, a move that was seen as an attempt to cap the
political fallout of the controversial remarks in the first phase of
Assembly elections in Gujarat.
The BJP and PM Modi, who
was campaigning in Gujarat, had invoked Mr Aiyar’s remarks to target the
Congress through the day. “Gujarat will reply,” he said, calling the
remark an example of the Congress’ “Mughal values that teach to demean
castes and talk about upper and lower castes.”
But as it
sought to disassociate itself from Mr Aiyar and his remarks, the
Congress also dared the BJP and PM Modi. “This is the Congress
leadership’s Gandhian philosophy and a sense of respect towards the
opposition,” Congress communications in-charge Rajdeep Surjewala
tweeted, questioning if PM Modi would have “courage to do something
similar”.
Rahul Gandhi had earlier publicly rebuked Mr
Aiyar, saying he did not appreciate the tone and language used by Aiyar
to address PM Modi. “Both the Congress and I expect him to apologise for
what he said,” Rahul Gandhi said in a tweet.
Mr Aiyar
did apologise for what he called his poor command of Hindi. “I meant low
level when I said ‘neech’, I don’t think he is low born...if it has
some other meaning then I apologise,” he said.
Ahead of
the 2014 national election also, Mani Shankar Aiyar had derided Narendra
Modi as a tea seller who could never be Prime Minister.
That comment was seen to have contributed significantly to Mr Modi’s sweep of the general election, NDTV said.
