NEW DELHI – He was suspended for shooting from his mouth before the Gujaratelections last year. That may not have been enough to silence Mani ShankarAiyar who in Lahore on Monday took yet another veiled dig at BJP forsupporting Hindutva.
Speaking at an event in Pakistan, Aiyar – suspended by Congress for callingPM Narendra Modi *neech* – invoked VD Savarkar to elaborate on the ideologyof ‘those currently in power in India.’ “Present situation in India is anaberration. In 1923, a man called VD Savarkar invented a word which doesn’texist in any religious text, ‘Hindutva’. So, first proponent of the twonation theory was ideological guru of those who are currently in power inIndia,” news agency ANI quoted Aiyar as saying.
Aiyar then said that he received flak in India for calling Pakistan’sfounder Muhammad Ali Jinnah as Quiad-e-Azam. “I know many Pakistanis whocalled MK Gandhi as Mahatma Gandhi, does that make them unpatrioticPakistanis?” he asked.
This is not the first time that the veteran politician has made acontroversial remark. And it is not the first time he has done so inPakistan. In the past, he has said that he receives more hatred in Indiathan love in Pakistan. Earlier this year, at the height of Indo-Paktensions, he had said that India is caught in partition mindset while thereis “change of mindset” in the neighbouring country.
As recently as last week, Aiyar was flayed by BJP for lauding Quaid eAzam even as there is a raging controversy over Jinnah’s portrait inAligarh Muslim University.
Although Congress has distanced itself from Aiyar’s recent comments, manyfeel his remarks would continue to have a bearing on the party which iscurrently battling hard to retain power in Karnataka.