Mani Shankar Aiyar
Mani Shankar Aiyar | |
|---|---|
| Member of Parliament | |
| Constituency | Mayiladuturai |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 10 April 1941 Lahore, Pakistan |
| Political party | INC |
| Spouse | Suneet Mani Aiyar |
| Children | 3 daughters |
| Residence | Mayiladuturai |
As of September 22, 2006 Source: [3] | |
Mani Shankar Aiyar (Tamil: மணிசங்கர் அயர்) (born April 10, 1941, Lahore) is an Indian politician. He is a member of the Indian National Congress party and is the cabinet minister in Ministry of Panchayati Raj and Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports in the Manmohan Singh government. He served as Union Cabinet Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas from May 2004 through January 2006. He represents the Mayiladuthurai constituency of Tamil Nadu in the 14th Lok Sabha.
Personal life
Mani Shankar Iyer is the son of Shri V. Sankar Aiyar and Smt. Bhagyalakshmi Sankar Aiyar (both now deceased). He attended prestigious institutions namely Welham Boys' School, The Doon School, both in Dehra Dun and St. Stephen's College,Delhi. He studied economics in Delhi and Cambridge. He was married on 4 January 1973 to Smt. Suneet Mani Aiyar. He has three daughters.
His special interests include grassroots democracy, Indian foreign policy particularly - with India's neighborhood countries and West Asia—and nuclear disarmament
Until very recently,he used to live in Sainik Farm a development declared illegal by the Delhi High Court ( as the last Lok Sabha Members Yearbook 2006 shows).
Work
He 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.
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.
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.[4]
- He has accused former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee of descending into "right-wing Shourieism". [5]
- At painter Satish Gujral's party he had a public altercation with fellow politician Amar Singh.[6]
- Suresh Kalmadi,President of Indian Olympic Association asked him to be removed as sports minister after he refused to support India's bid to host the 2014 Asian Games, which are to be held in Inchon. [7]
Notable quotes
"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."[2]
Publications
Aiyar has written four books -
- "Remembering Rajiv", Rupa, New Delhi, 1992
- "One Year in Paliament", Konark, New Delhi, 1993
- "Pakistan Papers", UBSPD, New Delhi, 1995
- "Rajiv Gandhi's India", 4 vols. (General Editor), UBSPD New Delhi, 1997
- "Confessions of a Secular Fundamentalist", Penguin, 2004.