Rubio's "watch-selling" remark on Trump will harm himself more, ask Mani Shankar Aiyar

Florida Senator Marco Rubio on Thursday made an all-out attack on Donald Trump in the GOP debate, his last realistic opportunity to derail the latter's strong forward march.

Rubio, 44, made every effort to ridicule Trump, 69, and shatter his confidence but will such strategy pay off for him who is turning more and more desperate to win his first primary election this presidential year?

One of Rubio's sharp dig at Trump came when he said the latter would have sold watches in Manhattan had not his family fortune saved him. He said Trump was successful because of his inheritance.

Mani Shankar Aiyar had made a chai-wala jibe at Modi and then history was made

Rubio's words will remind us Indians of a similar below-the-belt attack made by veteran Congess leader and former Union minister Mani Shankar Aiyar on Narendra Modi, the then prime ministerial candidate of the BJP, in January 2014. He had said at an AICC meeting that Modi would neve become the prime minister of India but could be favoured if he wanted to sell tea at the Congress meeting venue. Modi had a humble origin and sold tea at railway station and trains to help his poor father and this he did at the tender age of six.

But India saw what happened in less than six months from then. Modi became the first prime minister of India in three decades with a brute majority. And Aiyar's party met its worst electoral humiliation in the history of elections. There were other leaders, too, who made similar remarks against Modi but observers said later that it was Aiyar's distasteful comment which made Modi's journey to 7, Race Course Road, smooth.

Watch what Aiyar had said on Modi at that AICC meeting in the video below:

Seeing the Ameican election this year, which has been quite unusual in the sense that it is marked more by political incorrectness than not, Rubio's 'watch-seller' remark might just do Trump that much help ahead of the crucial Super Tuesday on March 1.

Trump is winning because he is politically incorrect

Trump is winning precisely because he has challenged the political correctness of the establishment and in doing so, has struck a chord with the dissatisfied voters of the country who are facing various socio-economic problems caused by the establishment's dubious policies over the years. Those who love to be politically correct in the establishment and liberal media hate Trump for his unconventional ways of campaigning but Trump knows what he is doing, just like Modi, who ensured the defeat of the establishment in 2014 by attacking the elitist structure from below.

Rubio is desperate now to get his first win

Rubio, who is feeling more pressure since he needs to deliver after being endorsed by various heavyweights in the Republican camp to defeat Trump, is perhaps ignoring this very danger. Just like Aiyar, he could face a disaster (for himself more since individuals matter more than party in the US system) by escalating the attack on Trump. It was quite unusual to see the man, who hardly went off the script in the initial days of the campaign, suddenly shifting gears to go all-out after Trump. The pressure to perform is catching him up but his strategy might not be the best to beat Trump, who is leading the race by far.