New Delhi: Among the many paradoxes governing his life is his “felicity with phrases”, writes Mani Shankar Aiyar within the second quantity of his autobiography, A Maverick in Politics.

On the one hand, it acted as a profession propellant; on the opposite, it “undermined me”, observes Aiyar within the chapter ‘Musings and Reflections on a Lengthy Life’. His “opinionated convictions”, which he has “by no means been in a position” to maintain to himself, additionally performed a task in his “ending as an outlier”, he provides.

During the last two days, the veteran Congressman has, but once more, made a public show of those character traits, embarrassing his celebration to the delight of its political rivals.

Aiyar lit the spark Sunday by heaping reward on Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and the Left Entrance, months forward of the Kerala meeting elections.

“It’s ironic that the one state in India through which progress has been made in Gandhiji’s course is the one dominated by the Marxist-Leninist celebration of India… So, within the presence of the Chief Minister, who I’m certain would be the subsequent Chief Minister, I renew my plea that, with the intention to reinforce Kerala as the perfect Panchayati Raj state within the nation, the state regulation must be amended on the idea of the expertise now we have… I’m afraid there is no such thing as a champion for Panchayati Raj left within the nation. So, subsequently, I’ve to fall at your toes, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, and say, please, sir, choose up the baton that the Congress has dropped,” Aiyar mentioned.

He made the remarks whereas addressing a seminar—’ Imaginative and prescient 2031: Improvement and Democracy’—in Thiruvananthapuram.

If these remarks checked Aiyar’s “verbal felicity” and “opinionated convictions” packing containers, his response to the Congress’s pushback ticked the opposite field—disapproval turning into sneers.

On Monday, Aiyar dismissed Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera, who wrote on X that the previous Congress MP has had no connection in any respect with the Congress for the previous few years and speaks and writes purely in his private capability, calling him a “puppet” and a “clown”.

Aiyar additionally described the omnipotent Congress normal secretary (organisation) Okay.C. Venugopal, an in depth Rahul Gandhi aide, as “rowdy”.

Extra importantly, he introduced that whereas “I’m a Gandhian, I’m a Nehruvian, I’m a Rajivian, however I’m not a Rahulian”, in a powerful disapproval of Rahul Gandhi.

“As a Congressman, I would like the UDF to come back to energy; as a Gandhian, I’m telling the reality that after the sensible achievements, the Left is certain to come back to energy… Who’s going to vote for a celebration whose leaders are all at one another’s throats? Do you assume the folks of Kerala don’t know what’s occurring within the Congress management? A minimum of in Pinarayi’s authorities, there’s self-discipline,” he informed ANI in Thiruvananthapuram.

Requested why he stays within the celebration which has all however disowned him, Aiyar mentioned, “There’s a biography of Dr Ambedkar—A Half Aside.”

Revealed in 2023, A Half Aside: The Life and Considered B.R. Ambedkar, is authored by Ashok Gopal.

A query that Aiyar’s members of the family have additionally requested him is why he isn’t content material resting on his laurels, even because the Congress has made it evident that he’s now not needed or valued within the organisation.

In his e-book, Aiyar information his response—politics, to him, is an habit.

Aiyar writes that he’s additionally acutely conscious that nobody who had left the Nehru–Gandhi mainstream of the Congress celebration had survived, besides quickly.

“Others identified that the Congress had lengthy drifted from its ideological moorings. That, I retorted, was purpose sufficient to drag the Congress again to fundamentals from inside reasonably than bark from exterior. To that, the plain counter was that there was no platform inside the celebration that offered a discussion board for debate.”

“Furthermore, on TV and thru my columns, I had been relentlessly urging Opposition unity to tackle the BJP, and it might be ridiculous so as to add to Opposition disunity by rising the variety of groupuscules contesting the already overcrowded political area.”

“Regardless of the deficiencies of the Congress and the Gandhi household—and so they have been legion—the Congress may solely survive with the Gandhis, for the Gandhis have been written into the celebration’s DNA, and the survival of the Congress was the one hope of saving the nation from the sinkhole of the Sangh Parivar’s Hindutva,” he writes.

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The suspension

Aiyar was suspended from the Congress on 7 December 2017, following an uproar over his calling Prime Minister Narendra Modi a “neech kisam ka aadmi”. It was revoked a yr later.

In his memoir, Aiyar reckons that his “neech kisam ka aadmi” comment on Modi proved to be the epitaph of his lengthy political profession, which started underneath Rajiv Gandhi and was marked by ups and downs.

His fallout with the Gandhi household, nonetheless, dates again to fifteen April 2010, Aiyar information.

Round that point, Digvijaya Singh had publicly criticised then residence minister P. Chidambaram over his strategy in direction of tackling Maoism, calling him “smug and unwilling to take heed to recommendation”.

Aiyar additionally spoke to the media on the difficulty, making remarks that appeared to endorse Singh’s view on Chidambaram.

On 15 April, as Aiyar ready to take the oath as a newly nominated member of the Rajya Sabha, he acquired a name from then Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who “gave me a livid tongue-lashing”.

However, Sonia was receptive to the concept of him contesting the 2024 Lok Sabha elections from Tamil Nadu’s Mayiladuthurai constituency, which he represented 3 times previously, claims Aiyar. However Rahul shot down the proposal, he provides.

“I had been warned by Sonia Gandhi’s closest aide that within the occasion of Rahul pondering in a different way, his mom would defer to him. That’s what had occurred. I used to be now a ‘Maverick Out of Politics’!” Aiyar writes.

(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)

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