Mani Shankar Aiyar

Mani Shankar Aiyar (born 10 April 1941) is a former Indian diplomat turned politician. He is a member of the Indian National Congress party and was a part of first Cabinet (2004-2009) of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh. He has served as the Union Minister of Panchayati Raj until he lost his seat in the 2009 election. He served as the Union Cabinet Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas from May 2004 through January 2006 and Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports till 2009. He was also the first Minister of Development of North Eastern Region.

He represented the Mayiladuthurai constituency of Tamil Nadu in the 14th Lok Sabha. He is currently a nominated member of parliament from Rajya Sabha. He was defeated from Mayiladuthurai in 2014 Lok Sabha election where he finished fourth and lost his deposit.

Early life

Mani Shankar Aiyer is the son of Vaidyanatha Shankar Aiyar, a chartered accountant, and Bhagyalakshmi Shankar Aiyar. He was born in Laxmi Mansions, Lahore in British India which, as post-Partition refugee property, came to house the family of Saadat Hassan Manto.^[1] His younger brother is the well known journalist, Swaminathan Aiyar. He lost his father at age 12 in an air crash.

He attended Welham Boys' School, The Doon School and obtained B.A. in Economics from St. Stephen's College, Delhi, University of Delhi. While at Doon, he was an editor of The Doon School Weekly.^[2] After the loss of his father, Aiyar's mother had to negotiate with Doon to allow him to continue his studies with reduced fees and in return she taught at the school.^[3]

He graduated in economics from Delhi University, and then did a two-year B.A. in Tripos in Economics at Trinity Hall, Cambridge at the University of Cambridge which, in the Oxbridge tradition, became an M.A with the passage of time. He was a member of Trinity Hall. He was also an active member of the Marxist Society in Cambridge. At Cambridge, Aiyar joined student politics and once even tried to win a presidential contest. He was supported by Rajiv Gandhi in his campaign who was his junior both at Doon and Cambridge.

Career

Mani Shankar Aiyar flanked by party workers

He joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1963 and served as Joint Secretary to Government of India. He later resigned from service in 1989 to take up a career in politics and media, entering the Parliament as a Congress MP from Mayiladuthurai in 1991, 1999 and 2004 but was defeated in 1996, 1998, 2009 and 2014. He spent some time in Pakistan posted as a diplomat, serving as India's first consul-general in Karachi from 1978 to 1982.^[4][5][6]

He is a special invitee to the Congress Working Committee and a chairman of both the party's political training department and the department of policy planning and coordination. He is also a well-known political columnist and has written several books, including Pakistan Papers and Remembering Rajiv, and has edited a four-volume publication, Rajiv Gandhi's India.

His special interests include, grassroots democracy, Indian foreign policy particularly with India's neighbouring countries and West Asia and nuclear disarmament.

Personal life

He was married on 4 January 1973 to Suneet Mani Aiyar. They have 3 daughters – the eldest, Suranya Aiyar is a lawyer;^[7] the second,Yamini Aiyar is a Senior Research Fellow and Director of the Accountability Initiative;^[8] and the youngest, Sana Aiyar is an assistant professor of historian of modern South Asia at MIT in Department of History.^[9]

Controversies

While on a tour of the Andamans as the Cabinet Minister in the later part of 2004, 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.^[10]

Aiyar was also involved in a public brawl with politician Amar Singh.^[11] According to Singh, Aiyar insulted Singh's then party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav and remarked: "Oh that bloody Mulayam -- he looks just like me. It could be because my father visited Uttar Pradesh at some point. Why don't you check with Mulayam's mother." ^[12]

In September 2011, Aiyar visited his alma mater—St. Stephen's College—to speak about 'Governance and Corruption: Is Panchayati Raj A Solution?'. However, he began to mock the Hansraj College and its former student Ajay Maken. He also belittled the Kirori Mal College and the BA (Programme) Degree, a course in the University of Delhi. This led to an agitation by the students of Hansraj College. When the agitated students approached him, he mocked them even further. When later questioned by the media, Aiyar refused to apologise and rather ridiculed the institutions even further. Baffled by his remarks, Stephen's College and its students went on to apologise to Hansraj College and extended a hand of friendship.^[13]

In the Rajya Sabha in August 2013, Samajwadi Party MP Naresh Agarwal accused Aiyar of being a Pakistani spy, when he refused to discuss the recent murder of 5 Indian soldiers by the Pakistani Army and instead suggested discussing rising gas prices. Aiyar reacted sharply and tried to assault Agarwal.^[14]

As sports minister, he effectively scuttled India's bid for Asian Games in 2007. It was widely felt that Delhi's lack of enthusiasm to host the event was the primary reason for its loss. Then Union Sports Minister of India, Mani Shankar Aiyar, spoke strongly against Delhi hosting the games and argued that it was better if the money allocated by India's government for organizing the sporting event was spent on building facilities for the poor.^[15] The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president revealed that India's Sports Minister remarks against hosting the Games was the main reason for New Delhi's loss.^[16]

In 2015, there was widespread demand for sedition charges against Aiyar for making indiscreet comment in an interview with a Dawn News while visiting Pakistan.^[17] Aiyar is said to have suggested removing Prime Minister Narendra Modi from power, to be able to continue peace talks between India and Pakistan.^[18]

Publications

Aiyar has written seven books –

• Remembering Rajiv, Rupa & Co., New Delhi, 1992
• One Year in Parliament, Konark, New Delhi, 1993
• Pakistan Papers, UBSPD, New Delhi, 1994
• Knickerwallahs, Silly-Billies and Other Curious Creatures, UBS Publishers, 1995
• Rajiv Gandhi's India, 4 vols. (General Editor), UBSPD New Delhi, 1997
• Confessions of a Secular Fundamentalist, Penguin, 2004.
• A Time of Transition: Rajiv Gandhi to the 21st Century, Penguin, 2009.

References

Further reading

• Satish Padmanabhan, Mani Shankar Aiyar, David Davidar, Mukul Kesavan, Nilanjana Roy and Sunil Sethi (January 12, 2015). "Word Psmiths in the city : book jacket on my sleeve". Outlook. 55 (1): 26–36. Retrieved 2016-01-06.  CS1 maint: Uses authors parameter (link)
• Mani Shankar Aiyar, David Davidar, Mukul Kesavan, Nilanjana Roy and Sunil Sethi (January 12, 2015). "Ink, mortar and canon". Outlook. 55 (1): 40–66. Retrieved 2016-01-06.  CS1 maint: Uses authors parameter (link)

External links

• Biography at Indian Sports Ministry website
• Article in The Economic Times about him dated 23 May 2004.
• Information as a member of 14th Lok Sabha on website of Lok Sabha
• Quote on cnn.com
• Speech to business leaders on poverty and growth
• Mani Shankar Aiyer Statement Regarding Terrorism