Monday, May 20

Congress Disavows Mani Shankar Aiyar’s Remarks, Counters With Jaishankar’s China Advice

Edited by Aishwarya Krishnan
Congress Disavows Mani Shankar Aiyar’s Remarks, Counters With Jaishankar’s China Advice (image-X/payalmehta100)

Following senior party leader Mani Shankar Aiyar’s remarks from an old video that India should engage in dialogue with Pakistan rather than flex its military prowess as it may lead to them dropping an atom bomb on us, Congress today distanced itself from his statements that have come under fire.

“Indian National Congress dissociates itself completely from and disagrees totally with some remarks made by Mr. Mani Shankar Aiyar few months back which have been revived today by the BJP in its attempt to deflect attention from Prime Minister Modi’s daily goof ups. Mr Aiyer does not speak for the party in any capacity whatsoever,” Pawan Khera said on an X (formerly Twitter) post.

Responding to the ruling BJP using the video, Congress fired back with a 21-second clip of External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar “publicly advising India to be afraid of China.” Referring to China, Jaishankar can be heard saying, “What am I going to do as a smaller economy? Go pick a fight with a bigger economy? It’s not a question of being reactive, its question of common sense.”

The now viral interview, generated criticism from BJP leaders, who accused Aiyar’s remarks of reflecting the Congress’ “ideology” for India. Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar tweeted that the grand old party’s ideology includes “support to and from Pakistan including offrng to give up Siachen, Support to and from domestic terror-linked organizations and people like SDPI, Yasin Malik,… Appease Muslim community at cost of all others incdg SC, OBC, ST who hv been denied progress for decades,… Dividing people, Lies, Abuse and fake guarantees to mislead poor and vulnerable.”

Actor-turned-politician and BJP candidate from Gorakhpur, Ravi Kishan, said, “At this time Pakistan is collecting foodgrains for itself. They are facing a food crisis…Mani Shankar Aiyar should get himself treated somewhere. This is not the India of Congress. Now, India is very powerful. This is the India of PM Modi,” as quoted by NDTV.

A vocal advocate of normalising relations between India and Pakistan, Aiyar had said in the old interview that the neighbouring country has atom bombs like India, but if a ‘madman’ decided to drop a bomb on Lahore, the radiation would reach Amritsar in less than eight seconds.

“If we respect them, they will remain peaceful. But if we snub them, what happens if a ‘madman’ comes up and decides to launch bombs (at India)?” the former diplomat asked.

Referring to PM Modi, he added, “In order to become the vishwaguru, no matter how serious our issues with Pakistan are, we have to show that we are working hard to resolve them. But in the last 10 years, there has been no hard work.”

Recently, former Jammu and Kashmir CM Farooq Abdullah too warned, “Remember, they (Pakistan) are also not wearing bangles. It has atom bombs, and unfortunately, that atom bomb will fall on us.”

Abdullah’s warning comes amidst PM Modi and several BJP leaders’ statements that Indian forces would enter Pakistan to kill any terrorist who escapes. During an election rally in Latur, Maharashtra, PM Modi said, “During the Congress regime, the news headlines were about India handing over another dossier to Pakistan about terror activities. It used to be big news. Today, India doesn’t send dossiers. Aaj Bharat ghar mein ghus ke marta hai (Today, India eliminates terrorists on their home turf).”

Chiming in, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh asserted that the Pakistan-Occupied-Kashmir (PoK) region “was, is, and will remain ours.