Not only Mani Shankar Aiyar but Former President of Congress Party Sonia Gandhi also called PM Narendra Modi “Neech”. Its not just a one time mistake but also it depicts the Feudalistic, castist and elitist mindset of the congress party.
Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday took aim at the entire Congress party and the Gandhi family over Mani Shankar Aiyar’s ‘neech’ jibe, saying he was used to hearing such language.
Addressing a rally in Nikol, Modi said Congress president Sonia Gandhi and other members of her family have used the ‘neech’ insult for him on earlier occasions as well.
“They have not called me ‘neech’ for the first time yesterday. Mrs Sonia Gandhi and her family members have used it too. Why am I ‘neech’ – because I was born poor, because I am from a lower caste, because I am a Gujarati? Is this why they hate me?” PM Modi asked.
Modi said senior Congress leader Anand Sharma called him mentally unstable while another party leader re-tweeted “an offensive tweet about me that I cannot even say it”.
“What did Digvijaya Singh tweet about me? Evidently, one Gujarati, a person born into a poor family, has troubled them a lot,” the PM told the crowd.
“Digvijaya Singh said Modi sarkar is like ‘Raakshas Raaj’ and ‘Modi is Ravana’. Pramod Tiwari, who headed the Congress in UP, said Modi is in the list of Hitler, Mussolini and Gaddafi. Day and night, the Congress has abused me. I keep quiet only because my priority is work,” Modi said further, laying bare his emotions.
“One more Congress leader called me a monkey. Jairam Ramesh compared me to ‘Bhasmasur’. Beni Prasad Verma called me a mad dog. He also said we won’t let this mad dog win. Ghulam Nabi Azad said I am ‘Gangu Teli’. Are these the kind of things we should say in public life?” he asked.
“Imran Masood, who they gave a ticket to, he said we will cut Modi into pieces. Renuka Chowdhury called me a virus. She said I bring Namonitis. I don’t even want to get started on what Gujarat Congress leaders have been calling me,” he went on to add, recalling all the insults that have been hurled at him by Congress leaders.
Aiyar had on Thursday triggered a major storm by calling PM Modi a “neech kisam ka aadmi”. In a damage-control move, the Congress last night suspended Aiyar from its primary membership and slapped a show cause notice on him for the remark that mushroomed into a massive controversy.
Earlier, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi had deprecated Aiyar’s language against the Prime Minister and asked him to apologise, which the former Union minister did, claiming his knowledge of Hindi was not good. Aiyar clarified that he never called Modi a “low-born”.
“Yes, I used the word ‘neech’. Now, I am not a Hindi speaker and I translate from English to Hindi. So I used ‘low person’, I translated ‘low’ in my mind. If it happened to mean something else. I apologise. ‘Neech’ as I understand is a direct translation of ‘low’.”
“I never meant ‘low-born’. In English, there’s a clear distinction between ‘low’ and ‘low-born’. It is very possible that in Hindi — which is not my natural language and which I learned after much effort — I translated ‘low’ as ‘neech’. But if ‘neech’ also means ‘low-born’ then I apologise that I used a word which can be interpreted in many ways, and in the way Modiji is interpreting it, I have nothing to do with that.
“I don’t think he is low-born but his language is very, I’ll say in English, is very low language. Why would he use such a low language for the Congress on such an occasion? Whatever I say they want to misinterpret. As far as I am concerned the bulk of my remarks dealt with Modi’s very, very nasty remarks about the Congress, particularly with Gandhi’s relationship with Ambedkar.
