'Aiyar Not Only Disillusioned But Has No Illusions Either'

Aiyar also notes that his 'chaiwallah' remark provided a handle to 'elements in the Congress party' to later divert attention from the real causes of the party's humiliating collapse at the 2014 hustings to shift the blame on this one remark put out in what he describes as a 'sarcastic, if sneering, jest.'

- Rasheed Kidwai

Mani Shankar Aiyar claims he never said that Narendra Modi would not become prime minister because he was a 'chaiwallah'.

In his third and final part of memoirs, titled, "A Maverick in Politics - 1991-2004" [Juggernaut], Aiyar, a former union minister, ex-IFS and prolific columnist writes, "I never called Modi a 'chaiwallah' and never advanced his having been a 'chaiwallah' as the reason for my believing he would never make it to the post of PM. Indeed, the person who said he was a 'chaiwallah' was Modi himself - to stress his somewhat doubtful claim to humble beginnings. The video of my remarks is still available on YouTube for anyone who cares to look.

I have often invited my media critics, and even my party colleagues, to check this out - but they just do not want to because they are committed to their totally false premise that I had indeed described Modi as a 'chaiwallah'.

Dwelling at lengths at 'My Chaiwallah Comment' in a chapter, "Decline... Fade Out... Fall: 2016-24" Aiyar gives a lengthy account of January 17, 2014 when an AICC plenary was taking place at Delhi's Talkatora Stadium. This was at a time Modi was BJP's prime ministerial candidate and seen by many as a likely winner of the 16th Lok Sabha polls.