New Delhi, Jan 17: In times of intense political slugfest, a job offer from a rival is rare. But senior Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar has crossed party lines to offer one to archrival Bharatiya Janata Party prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.
On Friday, Aiyar, a known critic of Modi, hit out at the Gujarat Chief Minister, maintaining that he can never become the country’s PM in 21st century. However, he added if Modi wanted to revert to his old profession and would consider selling tea at the ongoing All India Congress Committee session in New Delhi, his party could arrange a stall here for him.
"Give my word, Modi will never be PM in the 21st century, if he wants to sell tea here (AICC meet), we can arrange for it," Aiyar was quoted by a news agency as saying.
This is not the first time that the senior Congress leader has criticised Modi in public.
In December last year, Aiyar had called Modi "a joker who has a dirty mouth". "I do not support Narendra Modi at all. He is nothing but a joker. He has a dirty mouth and that is evident in his speeches," the Congress leader had said, adding that the Gujarat CM had no knowledge about history and economics.
On an earlier occasion in August last year, Aiyar had compared BJP’s behaviour in Parliament to Adolf Hitler and Mussolini, saying that the opposition party is mimicking fascism by continually disrupting parliamentary sessions.
"There is no difference between Adolf Hitler and the BJP. Yes, there is one big difference that Adolf Hitler first came to power and then closed Parliament while the BJP is closing Parliament in the hope that they will come to power. Their intent is clear, which is that they do not believe in democracy or its institutions. They want to carry on as they like. I hope, though it is getting harder to believe, that some discipline is instilled in Parliament," Aiyar had said.