The Congress party is reeling from acute discomfiture following veteran leader Mani Shankar Aiyar’s explosive remarks in Kerala, where he endorsed a third term for Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and also taunted his own party’s top brass after his comments drew sharp reactions.
In a verbal broadside that has left the Congress scrambling, Aiyar specifically branded AICC general secretary KC Venugopal a “rowdy”, communication head Pawan Khera a “parrot”, and Shashi Tharoor an “unprincipled careerist”.
This public meltdown has placed the party in a deeply awkward bind, occurring just as the Congress-led UDF is fighting a high-stakes battle to unseat the CPI(M)-led LDF in the upcoming Assembly elections. Aiyar further sharpened the embarrassment by declaring that while he remains a “Gandhian, Nehruvian, and Rajivian”, he is pointedly “not a Rahulian”.
The controversy was ignited at the State Planning Board’s ‘Vision 2031’ conference in Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday, February 15, where Aiyar lauded the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government as the true guardian of Mahatma Gandhi’s vision for Panchayati Raj. “So in the presence of the Chief Minister, who I'm sure will be the next Chief Minister, I renew my plea to reinforce Kerala as the best Panchayati Raj state in the country,” Aiyar said.
His statements led to Pawan Khera, Chairman of Media & Publicity Department of the AICC sharply commenting on X that Aiyar had "no connection" with the party for years and that he speaks and writes purely in his personal capacity.
When attention was drawn to the comments, Mani Shanker Aiyar retorted: "I have absolutely no respect and complete contempt for Pawan Khera. How stupid can a party be to make Pawan Khera a spokesman. He's just a puppet, he's saying whatever Jayaram Ramesh tells him. He's not a spokesman, he's a parrot. I'm in the Congress party. I have not left it but if Pawan Khera is going to expel me I'll happily go outside and kick his backside."
Aiyar questioned the "stupidity" of a party that would appoint Khera as a spokesperson and challenged his authority. His vitriol also extended to KC Venugopal, whom he mocked for being elevated to a status comparable to Sardar Patel despite being a "rowdy", as well as Kerala leader Ramesh Chennithala, who criticised his comments.
During an interview with NDTV, he branded Shashi Tharoor an "unprincipled careerist" and alleged that he was positioning himself to become a foreign minister under the Modi government. This multi-pronged attack on the Congress high command has left the Kerala unit in deep embarrassment, providing significant ammunition to the LDF as the state prepares for the upcoming assembly election.
Later he told ANI: “As a Congressman, I want the UDF to come to power. As a Gandhian, I am telling the truth after the brilliant achievements of the Pinarayi government, the Left govt is bound to come to power because the electorate of Kerala is the most intelligent, and the most independent thinking of any people in India, so therefore I want the UDF to come but as Gandhian but I'm afraid as a Gandhian who is required to tell the truth I cannot see anyone but the LDF coming to power.
In another interaction with the media he also said Satheesan was the only Congress leader he admired. "Promise me that Satheesan will be the Chief Minister and I will withdraw my remark that Pinarayi will be the next Chief Minister," he said.