Congress suspends Mani Shankar Aiyar over Neech remark

Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar was on Thursday suspended from primary membership of the Party for calling Prime Minister Narendra Modi a 'neech aadmi'. Congress has also issued him a showcause notice telling him to explain his remarks.

This came after Aiyar called Modi a 'neech aadmi', triggering sharp reactions from the BJP and censure from his own party two days before voting starts in the Gujarat elections .

Earlier, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi said he did not appreciate the tone and language used by Aiyar to address the PM. "Both the Congress and I expect him to apologise for what he said, " Rahul Gandhi said in a tweet.

Within minutes, Aiyar said he was responding to the "foul language" being used by the PM daily against Congress leaders. "I am a freelance Congressi, I hold no post in the party, so I can reply to PM in his language," he said.

However, Aiyar clarified that he did not mean "low-born" when using the term 'neech'. "Neech word can have different interpretations, my intention was never to talk of PM's caste.I apologise if it also has a caste meaning."

OneIndia News (with inputs)