Veteran Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar has once again landed his party in an awkward spot, this time with a no-holds-barred interview that aimed at several of his own colleagues. In an interview with NDTV, the former Union minister did not mince words while speaking about Shashi Tharoor, Jairam Ramesh and Pawan Khera, and went a step further by predicting a bleak electoral future for the Congress in Kerala.
According to Aiyar, the party’s biggest problem in the state isn’t the Left, but internal warfare; leaders, he said, “hate each other more than they hate the Communists.”
#NDTVExclusive | "He (Pawan Khera) is a 'puppet' of the Congress party… They (Congressmen) are divided among themselves. They hate each other more than they hate the communists": Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar to NDTV's @journalistaswin pic.twitter.com/tFqfVRZzEQ
— NDTV (@ndtv) February 16, 2026
The remarks come against the backdrop of a fresh controversy over Aiyar’s recent praise for Kerala Chief Minister and CPM stalwart Pinarayi Vijayan, whom he had even suggested could return to power after the next Assembly polls. The Congress has been quick to disown Aiyar’s comments, with Pawan Khera publicly insisting that the veteran leader no longer speaks for the party and only represents himself.
Aiyar, however, used the NDTV interview to fire back. He dismissed Khera as a “puppet” and questioned his standing as a party spokesperson. “He has been accusing me for the past two years,” Aiyar said, adding that if the Congress cannot find anyone better to speak for it, “it will remain in the condition it is in.” On the Kerala elections, his assessment was equally blunt: he wants the Congress to win, but doesn’t believe it will, because the leadership is too divided to mount a credible challenge.
His barbs were not limited to Khera. Aiyar also took a swipe at Shashi Tharoor, the four-time MP from Thiruvananthapuram, who has had a strained relationship with the party leadership over issues such as Operation Sindoor. Labelling Tharoor “anti-Pakistan,” Aiyar claimed the MP harbours ambitions of becoming the “next foreign minister.” Jairam Ramesh, the party’s communications chief, did not escape either, Aiyar suggested that Ramesh is primarily focused on “keeping his job.”
The controversy has its roots in a seminar in Thiruvananthapuram titled “Vision 2031: Development and Democracy,” held months ahead of the state elections. The state Congress leadership had reportedly urged several invitees not to attend. Aiyar, noting the absence of his party colleagues, remarked that he “deeply regretted” their decision to skip what he called a state, and therefore national, occasion. He then went on to heap praise on Pinarayi Vijayan, citing Kerala’s performance in Panchayati Raj institutions and invoking Rajiv Gandhi’s vision. In a striking flourish, he told the Chief Minister to “pick up the baton that the Congress has dropped.”
Unsurprisingly, the Congress leadership moved swiftly to contain the damage. Khera reiterated on X that Aiyar has had “no connection whatsoever” with the party for years and speaks purely in a personal capacity. Jairam Ramesh, for his part, sought to shift the focus back to electoral politics, asserting that the people of Kerala would bring the UDF back to power and accusing the LDF and BJP of being “covert partners.”
