In an interview with PTI, senior Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar talked about tough times for his party in 2012. He pointed out two big problems: Sonia Gandhi got very sick and Manmohan Singh had six heart bypass surgeries. Aiyar believes that if different leaders had made different choices, Congress might have avoided a huge loss in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. He said, “In 2012, we were in trouble because our top leaders were unwell.”
Aiyar thinks that if Dr. Manmohan Singh had become President and Pranab Mukherjee had been Prime Minister, the party would still have lost in 2014, but not in such a bad way, ending up with only 44 seats.
He also shared his thoughts about the Gandhi family. Aiyar noted that his political life was both helped and hurt by them. He talked about how he didn’t get much chance to meet Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, or Priyanka Gandhi directly. “For 10 years, I couldn’t meet Sonia one-on-one,” he said, adding that he only met Rahul a couple of times and Priyanka just twice.
In a funny moment, he recounted how he wished Rahul a happy birthday through Priyanka because he was suspended from the party at the time. Priyanka was surprised and asked why he couldn’t just talk to Rahul. He explained that being suspended meant he couldn’t.
Aiyar also remembered a curious conversation with Sonia Gandhi after he wished her “Merry Christmas.” She surprising replied, “I’m not a Christian,” which caught him off guard. He added that he doesn’t believe in any religion but respects all of them.
Overall, Aiyar is a former diplomat and a well-known politician, having represented his area in the Lok Sabha and serving in the Rajya Sabha. He is sharing these reflections as he prepares to release his new book, “A Maverick in Politics.”
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