Achi news desk-
Mani Shankar Iyer
– Photo: Amar Ojala
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The Congress is yet to recover from the criticism over Sam Pitroda’s alleged racist and apartheid statement, another senior Congress leader Manny Shankar Iyer has again said something that could be controversial. In fact, Mani Shankar Aiyar said in the conversation that ‘Pakistan is a sovereign country and they also have a nuclear bomb, so they should be respected’.
What did Manny Shankar Iyer say?
A video of Mani Shankar Aiyar was shared on social media, in which Aiyar supported talks with Pakistan and addressed the government saying that ‘Pakistan is a sovereign country and they also have respect, while maintaining that respect you want, but talk to them. You walk around with a gun and it increases the tension. Iyer said, ‘What if some madman comes to power there, he has a nuclear bomb. We have that too, but if a bomb explodes at Lahore station, the radiation from the bomb will reach Amritsar in just 8 seconds. In such a situation, you should try to stop the use of bombs through conversations. If you try to talk to them and respect them, only then they won’t think about their bomb. If India wants to be a world leader, then it is important to show that we are working hard to resolve our issues with Pakistan. For this we will have to talk and there have been no talks in the last 10 years. However, Mani Shankar Aiyar claimed that this video is several months old.
Congress expressed disapproval of Iyer’s statement
The Congress distanced itself from party leader Mani Shankar Aiyar’s statement on Pakistan and said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) sought him out to divert attention. Congress media department chairman Pawan Kheda wrote on social media platform ‘X’ that Iyer did not say anything on behalf of the party. Kheda completely disputed Iyer’s words and said it was an old video. Uploading a video of External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, she wrote Hara, ‘If you have to use old videos, then here is a video that is not very old in which the foreign minister openly says that India should be afraid of China.’
