Mani Shankar Aiyar
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| Born | 10 April 1941 Lahore, Pakistan |
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|---|---|---|
| Residence | Mayiladuturai | |
| Office | Member of Parliament | |
| Constituency | Mayiladuturai | |
| Political party | INC | |
| Spouse | Suneet Mani Aiyar | |
| Children | 3 daughters | |
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As of September 22, 2006 |
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Mani Shankar Aiyar (born April 10, 1941, Lahore) is an Indian politician. He is a member of the Indian National Congress party and is the cabinet minister for Panchayati Raj and also for Youth Affairs & Sports in the Manmohan Singh government. He represents the Mayiladuthurai constituency of Tamil Nadu in the 14th Lok Sabha.
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[edit] Early Life
He attended The Doon School and St. Stephen's College, studied economics in Delhi and Cambridge and served for 26 years in the IFS, the last five of which were on deputation to the Prime Minister’s Office under Rajiv Gandhi (1985-89). He resigned from service in 1989 to take up a career in politics and the media, entering Parliament as a Congress MP from the state of Tamil Nadu in 1991, was badly mauled in 1996 and re-elected in 1999.
[edit] Work
He is a special invitee to the Congress Working Committee and chairman of both the party’s political training department and the department of policy planning and coordination. He is, besides, a well-known political columnist and has written several books, including Pakistan Papers and Remembering Rajiv, as also edited a four-volume publication, Rajiv Gandhi’s India.
[edit] Personal Life
He is married, and has three daughters. His special interests include grassroots democracy, Indian foreign policy—particularly with India's neighborhood countries and West Asia—and nuclear disarmament.
He resides in the area known as Sainik Farms[5], an unauthorized colony at the New Delhi "farmhouse route".
[edit] Controversies
- After Manmohan Singh was sworn in as the Prime Minister of India, Aiyar declared, referring to Sonia Gandhi, "She's the queen, she is appointing a regent to run some of the government's business. But it is she who will be in charge." [1]
- While on a tour of the Andamans as Cabinet Minister, Aiyar was quoted as saying at the Cellular Jail there that there was no difference between the radical right-wing revolutionary Veer Savarkar, a famous inmate of the prison, and Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, as they shared a 'divisive' philosophy. He also ordered that a plaque with a poem commemorating Savarkar be replaced with a plaque with quotes from Mahatma Gandhi. Savarkar had been tried and acquitted for conspiring in Gandhi's assassination. Reports of the incident paralysed Parliament and led to agitations by the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra. Aiyar's remarks created confusion as well in the ruling party; the official spokesman, Anand Sharma, noted that the Congress Party did not consider Savarkar either a freedom fighter or a patriot; a few days later, the Prime Minister dissociated himself and the cabinet from that view acknowledging that Savarkar was indeed a freedom fighter and patriot although he held some controversial views and dismissed Aiyar's assertions as his personal opinion.[6]
- He has accused former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee of descending into "right-wing Shourieism". [7]
- At painter Satish Gujral's party he had a public altercation with fellow politician Amar Singh.[8]
[edit] Notable quotes
"I am a Brahmin from Tanjore district. Yet I eat beef. I threw my sacred thread. I married, not a Brahmin, but, a non-Hindu. I am so secular." [2]
"Sir, my secular answer to the honourable member is that where it is in the hands of Allah, we turn to Allah, where it is in the hands of man, we turn to man."[3]
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Article in Economic Times about him dated May 23, 2004.
- Information as a member of 14th Lok Sabha on website of Lok Sabha
- Quote on cnn.com
