Mani Shankar Ayiar and Salman Khurshid our very own modern ‘Jaichands’

India has a tradition of putting personal aspirations above national interests. This tradition dates back to the days of Prithviraj Chauhan and Jaichand. Jaichand invited Mohd Ghori to attack Prithviraj Chauhan, the Emperor of Delhi. Ghori came, helped by Jaichand, attacked Prithviraj, killed him and established his rule enslaving India and Indians. That slavery continued for over 1000 years!

Today, Mani Shankar Aiyer, appealed his Pakistani friends to remove Prime Minister Narendra Modi and resume dialogue with India. “Remove Modi and get us back to resume dialogue”, he said talking to a Pakistani television channel recently.

“Agar aap varta chahtey hain to Narendra Modi ko hataiye, humay ley aaiye”, i.e. “if you want the dialogue with India then get rid of Narendra Modi and bring us back to power”, he told the television channel.

Mani Shankar Aiyar is a senior Congress leader, a former minister and a former bureaucrat. His statement can be interpreted in a thousand ways, and his colleagues in the Congress party are busy at it. But there is just one single word to describe this. TREASON!

And he should be tried for treason according to the law of the land.

The most obvious question that comes to mind is: How come Aiyar thinks Pakistanis will help them (Congress) come back to power? Indian Constitution does not permit Pakistani nationals to vote in Indian elections. Then why Aiyar is appealing them to throw away Modi government? What he intends to achieve by this?

The only logical answer seems to be this: Aiyar wants Pakistan to resort to some ‘other’ ways to destabilise the democratically elected Modi government in India, and these ‘other ways’ could be sponsoring more terror activities against India so that the bilateral ties between the two neighbours deteriorate further and the Congress party can blame the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for this mess in already disturbed relations with Pakistan.

Mani Shankar Aiyar’s statement in Pakistan has naturally disturbed many Indians and the public anger against him was visible on the social media sites. But for those who are familiar with the Congress party and its leaders there is nothing new in his ‘appeal’. Congress has a history of putting everything, including national interests at the back for the party and leaders’ interests.

There are umpteen examples to prove this ‘party-leaders first’ attitude of the Congress party. Most recent of them is their request to the US and other countries not to allow Narendra Modi to visit their countries in spite of a clean chit from highest court of the country in Gujarat riot case. What action the then UPA government initiated against those MPs who signed the joint statement against Modi who was democratically elected twice as chief minister and exonerated by the Supreme Court?

Mani Shankar Aiyar made this shocking statement a couple of weeks ago. He was invited to a book release function in Pakistan—the same book for which Sudhindra Kulkarni faced the wrath of Shiv Sainiks in Mumbai. Gen Parvez Musharraf was also invited for this function. It was during this visit Aiyar blurted out his mind against Modi.

Maybe, Mani’s intentions were more serious to be dismissed as mere venomous. What did he expect from Pakistan when he sought their help in ‘removing Modi’? Did he want Modi to be physically eliminated with their help? Or what could be the ‘other ways’ for Pakistan to get rid of Prime Minister Modi before he completed his five-year term?

Thus, the comment by a very senior Congress leader like Mani Shankar Aiyar should not be allowed to lapse or rejected as his ‘wishful thinking’. It has more sinister undertones and calls for firm action against Aiyar under the act of sedition and treason.

Another Congress leader, former Minister of External Affairs (MEA) Salman Khurshid also spoke his mind against Modi when he was visiting Pakistan. He went a step ahead and squarely blamed Modi for not responding ‘positively’ to peace initiatives from Pakistan! Pakistan has been making sincere gestures for peace with India but it was Modi Government that was not reciprocating their initiatives, he said. What a height of treachery!!

“India has not responded to Pakistan’s overtures for peace in South Asia the way it should have”, said Khurshid. In making this observation Khurshid has not only disrespected our armed forces engaged at frustrating all the terrorist attacks sponsored by Pakistan, he has also insulted all those Indians who lost their lives in this Pak-sponsored terrorism. Is he suffering from loss of memory to forget the Mumbai attacks? Or the recent attacks in Kashmir killing civilians and armed forces alike. Should he be told of the sacrifice of brave young colonel Santosh Mahadik who laid down his life just a couple of days ago fighting terrorists in J & K?

Is this the way to achieve peace? By endorsing terrorism as state policy? Little did they realise that they were compromising with India’s stand against terrorism. When Prime Minister Modi got him busy globally isolating those who encourage and sponsor terrorism, we have these traitors like Mani Shankar Aiyar and Salman Khurshid who sympathise with the enemy state!

They can stoop to such an abysmal low to malign Narendra Modi’s image. Little did they understand that in defaming the Prime Minister they have insulted 126 crore Indians. And yet they have the audacity to blame the ‘Right Wingers’ for branding them anti-nationals, traitors and treasonous.   

The Congress party leadership has not come out and openly denounced the statements of Aiyar and Khurshid in the strongest words. On the contrary their leaders are brazenly justifying their statements made in the ‘interest of the country’ or pooh-poohing them as their ‘personal opinions’. Does it mean that this is the official line of the Congress party on the issue of Pak sponsored terrorism? The statements and arguments of Congress leaders participating in television debates underline this view.

Equally disturbing is the studied silence of the media. The same media left no chance to launch vitriolic attack on any statement coming from any ‘Hindutva’ leader making mountains out of moles, has not raised the same high-pitched hue and cry over these anti-national statements of Congress leaders. In behaving in such a partisan manner the media has exposed its double standards. This leads to an obvious observation that the media has teamed up with Congress and their secular friends to defame Prime Minister Modi and his government.

India is a democracy, a mature democracy and a largest democracy in the world. In democracy people’s mandate is supreme and needs to be respected by the parties irrespective of their political ideologies and thoughts. Oftentimes they have to cooperate with the government to run the affairs of the country in the most efficient manner. Similarly, the security, pride and sovereignty of the country have to be treated above everything else.

But after the 2014 elections the Congress party has not only insulted the popular mandate time and again, it had refused to accept the same which gave it only 44 seats. They have not accepted Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister of India. Their anti-Modi, anti-Government attitude was visible during the last monsoon session of the parliament which was a total waste of time and money. Now, Mani Shankar Aiyar and Salman Khurshid have crossed all the limits of democratic decency!

Pakistan is only too interested to welcome such traitors. Their mainstay is ‘anti-India-ism’ and whosoever helps them in their mission, they are treated well. Such elements act as their points men in creating confusion in India, demoralising nationalism and so on. The tribe of these modern ‘Jaichands’ is increasing and becoming more vocal.

There are organizations in Pakistan that encourage such ‘Jaichands’ by organizing parties, sponsoring foreign tours for them and so on. They invite people like Sudhindra Kulkarni, Barkha Datt, Dilip Padgaonkar, Siddharth Varadrajan, Salam Khurshid, who, day in and day out give vent to their anti-India and pro-Pakistani statements. We must understand the intention behind such organized tirade of these modern ‘Jaichands’.

What Mani Shankar Ayier and Salman Khurshid did was nothing short of treason. It was our misfortune that we were governed by such traitors for past ten years. Now they are exposed. The government must try them for treason and sedition. That is the only way to deal with traitors.