Congress suspends Aiyar after his 'neech' remark

The Congress Party has suspended Mani Shankar Aiyar from the primary membership of the party.

Congress leader Randeep Surjewala? on Thursday took to Twitter to apprise of the development.

He wrote that this was the party's 'Gandhiwadi' leadership that believed in respecting the opponents. Congress has issued a showcause notice to Aiyar and suspended him from the primary membership of the party.

Surjewala further asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi if he would ever show the courage to do something like this.

Surjewala's tweet came after Aiyar, earlier in the day, referred to Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a "neech aadmi" for appropriating Babasaheb Ambedkar into his election campaign for the imminent assembly polls in Gujarat.

Aiyar, while talking to ANI, said it was the first prime minister of India, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, who turned Dr Ambedkar's wish into reality and it was not correct to badmouth the Nehru-Gandhi family.

"This person is a 'neech aadmi' (low-minded). He is not civilised and in a situation like this, there is no need to practise such dirty politics," Aiyar said.

Responding to this, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi took to Twitter saying, "BJP and PM routinely use filthy language to attack the Congress party. The Congress has a different culture and heritage. I do not appreciate the tone and language used by Mr Mani Shankar Aiyer to address the PM. Both the Congress and I expect him to apologise for what he said."

However, Aiyar clarified that the word 'neech' holds different meanings, adding he would want to apologise for the wrong translation.

This is not the first time Aiyar has made a derogatory remark about the prime minister.

He had, in January 2014, before the Modi-wave took the nation by surprise, said "Modi would never become prime minister, but he was welcome to serve tea to Congressmen."

The BJP had then turned the Congress leader's attack into a campaign asset - "chai pe charcha".

To this end, Aiyar said he had never called the prime minister a 'Chaiwala', adding, "You can go on the internet and check all the videos.