Nine months after being suspended as a primary member of Congress for making a controversial statement against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, party president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday approved the recommendation of the disciplinary committee of the party to revoke his suspension.
A statement from Ashok Gehlot, the general secretary for organizational matters, said Mr Gandhi has accepted the recommendation of the Central Disciplinary Committee to revoke his suspension with immediate effect.
Mr. Aiyar was suspended after he referred to Prime Minister as “ neech ” (a low life) in December last year, right in the middle of the Gujarat elections.
The former MP had called Prime Minister Narendra Modi “ neech kism ka aadmi ” in reaction to Mr. Modi’s speech at the inauguration of the Ambedkar International Centre, where he accused the Congress of systematically undermining Ambedkar’s legacy.
Mr. Aiyar does not hold any post in the party but the Congress suspended his memerbership to “send a strong signal.”
After the controversial remark, Mr. Gandhi took to Twitter to publicly censure Mr. Aiyar. “BJP and PM routinely use filthy language to attack Congress party. Congress has a different culture and heritage. I do not appreciate the tone and language used by Mr. Mani Shankar Aiyar to address the PM. Both the Congress and I expect him to apologise for what he said,” he had tweeted.
Though Mr. Aiyar had regretted his comments soon after, the Congress had suspended him from the primary membership of the party.
