Mani Shankar Aiyar abuses reporters, says PM Modi a ‘coward’

PTI, May 15, 2019, 10:46 AM IST

Shimla:  Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar on Tuesday pushed aside a microphone, made fists and used an expletive at reporters who questioned him about his “neech” (vile) jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

He also called the Prime Minister a coward. Aiyar lost his temper at TV reporters who met him at the Punjab government guest house in Shimla and questioned him over an article he wrote, recalling a slur he directed at PM Modi in 2017.

“Don’t you know there is a person in India, Narendra Modi. Haven’t you heard about his sharp attacks? Go and ask him questions,” he told them in Hindi.

“No, He doesn’t talk to you as he is a coward. He doesn’t talk to the media,” he said. Then he raised his arms, waiving them about in an apparent imitation of PM Modi.

He also made a fist at the reporters and pushed away a microphone. “You won’t ask me any question,” he warned one of them. He then used an expletive in English, while asking them to leave.

With another set of reporters during the day, Aiyar was calmer. He said it was just one line in his article and he will not get involved in media’s “games”. “I am a fool, but not such a big fool,” he said.

Referring to PM Modi in his article in Rising Kashmir and The Print, Aiyar wrote, “Remember how I described him on 7 December 2017? Was I not prophetic?”

In 2017, the former Union minister had called PM Modi “neech aadmi” following which he was suspended from the Congress party. This time, too, the Congress has condemned the remarks in the article.