Aiyar justifies 'neech' slur against PM; Cong condemns, PM dubs such abuses as 'gifts'

After months of silence, Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar was back in the news on Tuesday with an article justifying his "neech" slur against Narendra Modi, and also calling him the most "foul-mouthed" prime minister the country has seen.

The article, published in Rising Kashmir and The Print, drew condemnation from the Congress and the BJP, which called Aiyar "abuser-in-chief" and described his party as arrogant.

Addressing an election rally, Modi attacked Aiyar and the Congress, saying he takes such abuses as "gifts" and the public will respond to each and every abuses by electing the BJP.

In the article, just days before the last phase of voting for the high-stakes Lok Sabha polls, Aiyar said,"remember how I described him on 7 December 2017? Was I not prophetic?"
Justifying the slur, Aiyar in his article said,"Modi will, in any case, be ousted by the people of India on 23 May. That would be a fitting end to the most foul-mouthed prime minister this country has seen or is likely to see. Remember how I described him on 7 December 2017? Was I not prophetic?"
The Prime Minister further said,"he (Aiyar) is now saying it again, and also emphasising that there is nothing wrong in his abuse against me. The Naamdaar and his family and their people have ruled over this country for years with this arrogance...I take such abuses as gifts. Modi does not need to answer to these abuses, it is the public which will give answer to each and every abuse hurled at me by choosing the BJP."
Aiyar said this drives Hindutva supporters "nuts because they like to believe the 'udan khatolas' of mythology were the earliest F-16s to be invented by Hindus, and that Hindu plastic surgery, not a transplant operation, is what led to an elephant's head surmounting Lord Ganesh."