Mani Shankar Aiyaar - An arrogant man

I used to be a great fan of Mani Shankar Aiyar and his oratory. Him being the product of St' Stephen's college and Cambridge along with 26 yrs. of IFS career was enough to impress me and bring out my admiration for him. His association with Congress is well known and the controversies that dissociated him from Congress..

I used to watch him on the program called " Politically Incorrect " with Swapan Das Gupta. But tonight while I was watching him on NDTV for the debate "Has Wharton violated freedom of speech?" I was appalled to see his behaviour. It was extremely undemocratic, discourteous, disrespectful and somewhat threatening towards Sonia NC and the anchor.

I lost my perception of him being the intellectual. I felt he is an autocratic man who has no patience to deal with people who think differently than him. He lives within his own ideological mind frame. Though he was demanding freedom of speech for himself from the anchor but denied the same right to Modi. I am not a great fan of Modi but he has all the right to share his views with the people of India and Internationally. It is up to us to think what we want to think about him.

I am quoting this from wikipedia which says enough about him, "In September 2011, Aiyar visited his alma mater—St. Stephen's College—to speak about 'Governance and Corruption: Is Panchayati Raj A Solution?'. However, he began to mock the Hansraj College and its former student Ajay Maken. He also billeted the Kirori Mal College and the BA (Programme) Degree, a course in the University of Delhi. This led to an agitation by the students of Hansraj College. When the agitated students approached him, he mocked them even further. When later questioned by the media, Aiyar refused to apologise and rather ridiculed the institutions even further. Baffled by his remarks, Stephen's College and its students went on to apologise to Hansraj College and extended a hand of friendship."