NEW DELHI: Veteran leader Mani Shankar Aiyar on Tuesday fired a fresh salvo at Congress leadership with party’s history to warn that the party has always thrived on internal dissent and suffered whenever it tried to suppress it.In a video released on his Youtube channel titled ‘No space for dissent in today’s Congress?’ the leader said traced ideological conflicts, leadership rivalries and rebellions stretching back to the party’s founding in 1885 to make the case that disagreement, not conformity, has been Congress’s defining strength. “There was just one time when a complete ban was placed on any kind of dissidents.
That was during Indira Gandhi‘s Emergency,” Aiyar said.
Also Read: From ‘chaiwala’ to ‘Rahulian’ – Mani Shankar Aiyar returns and Congress ducks for cover, againAccording to him, the consequences of silencing dissent during that period were catastrophic. “The Congress not only lost,” he said, “Indira Gandhi lost her Rae Bareli seat and Sanjay Gandhi lost his Amethi seat. That is what happens if you crush dissidents in the Congress party.”Aiyar argued that internal disagreement has existed within Congress almost from its inception and was never treated as an aberration. He cited the selection of Badruddin Tyabji as Congress president in 1888 and the backlash he faced from sections of the Muslim elite, describing it as one of the earliest recorded episodes of dissent within the party.He went on to recount ideological clashes between moderates and extremists in the early 20th century, particularly the split between Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Lala Lajpat Rai and Bipin Chandra Pal on one side and leaders like Gopal Krishna Gokhale and M.G. Ranade on the other, culminating in the Surat split of 1907.Also Read: ‘From arsh to farsh’ – Mani Shankar Aiyar’s ‘Rahulian’ outburst and ‘uncle’ syndrome“The real strength of the Congress has been in the variety of opinion which the Congress has always accommodated,” Aiyar said.He noted that despite sharp disagreements, figures like Tilak eventually became Congress president, while Mahatma Gandhi openly acknowledged Gokhale as his political guru, underlining the party’s ability to absorb contradictions rather than eliminate them.Father, son and the ‘Holy ghost’Drawing pointed historical from 1929 when Subhas Chandra Bose sarcastically remarked that the Congress was being run by “the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost”, Aiyar said: “Nobody expelled Subhas Chandra Bose for what he had said.” He described how Bose later walked out of the Congress after fundamental disagreements with Mahatma Gandhi over non-violence, forming the Forward Bloc, but was never expelled. “He walked out of the Congress. He was not expelled,” Aiyar emphasised.Aiyar also recalled intense disagreements between Jawaharlal Nehru and his father Motilal Nehru, noting that “it became impossible to have dinner in Anand Bhavan because the father and son were quarrelling so much among each other”.“That is how you deal with dissidents in the Congress party,” Aiyar said.Aiyar argued that Indira Gandhi marked a decisive break from this tradition. While disagreements with the Congress “Syndicate” were initially accommodated, he said, her decision to split the party and later impose the Emergency represented a fatal intolerance of dissent.“She broke the party only because there were dissidents,” Aiyar said, adding that the Emergency was “the only way in which she could remain prime minister”.The verdict, he argued, came swiftly. “The Congress not only lost,” he repeated, “Indira Gandhi lost her Raebareli seat and Sanjay Gandhi lost his Amethi seat.”He quoted two sentences Rajiv Gandhi uttered in the Lok Sabha on May 5, 1989:“Only a secular Bharat can survive,” Rajiv Gandhi had said. “And if India is not secular, then perhaps it does not deserve to survive.”Turning those words into a challenge, Aiyar said, “I say to the Congress Party high command who have kept me out of the Working Committee, which now has 60 members, do you have the courage to repeat the words in the mouth of the son of Rajiv Gandhi?”Warning the current leadership, Aiyar said, “If, therefore, the current establishment cannot stand a dissident, then I’m afraid it is the doom of the Congress.”“The Congress lives because of dissidents. The Congress grows because there are many opinions,” he added.His final message was blunt: “If we do not have the courage to answer the dissident in polite but firm language, then we do not deserve to rule.”The video comes amid row over his recent remarks on party leadership and praise for Kerala CM. The Congress has officially distaned itself from Aiyar saying he has no connection with the party.In a post on X, Khera said Aiyar “has had no connection whatsoever with the Congress for the past few years. He speaks and writes purely in his personal capacity.”
