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Mani Shankar Aiyar (born April 10, 1941, Lahore) is an Indian politician. He has been a member of the Indian National Congress party. He is the Petroleum minister and Panchayati Raj minister in the Manmohan Singh government. He represents Mayiladuthurai, Tamil Nadu in the 14th Lok Sabha.
Mani Shankar Aiyar was stripped of his Petroleum, Oil and Natural Gas portfolio and demoted to Youth Affairs and Sports on the 29th of January, 2006. He has been replaced by Murli Deora, believed to be a staunch USA supporter. This "cabinet reshuffle" has been extensively criticised in the Indian media, as a case of buckling to US pressure. The event takes on special significance in the light of recent US pressure on India with reference to its Nuclear policy and its energy dynamics. Mani Shankar Aiyar took great interest in a pipeline between Iran and India, through Pakistan. This and other pan-Asian energy iniatives of his were in clash with US interests in the region. Direct comments expressing their discontent were issued by the US administration. For example, during a trip to South Asia in mid-March 2005, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice had issued a strident call for the abandonment of the IPI project by India as well as Pakistan. More recently, The US Ambassador to India, David Mulford’s statements were condemned in the media as insolent meddling with India’s domestic and foreign affairs. The Hindu reported that the United States had taken strong exception to India's recent decision to buy a Syrian oilfield in partnership with China and had issued a demarche asking the Indian Government to "reconsider" its proposed investment. The Opposition parties and media have both criticised Manmohan Singh's government for buckling to US pressures neglecting India's energy interests, as well as the intereferece into India's internal affairs and sovereignity. The ruling Congress has denied any "Foreign Hand" in his demotion. Aiyar himself was quoted saying that his tenure in the ministry had been temporary, and thus, his portfolio change, long overdue.
He attended The Doon School, studied economics in Delhi and Cambridge and served for 26 years in the IFS, the last five of which were on deputation to the Prime Minister’s Office under Rajiv Gandhi (1985-89). He resigned from service in 1989 to take up a career in politics and the media, entering Parliament as a Congress MP from the state of Tamil Nadu in 1991 and being re-elected in 1999.
He is a special invitee to the Congress Working Committee and chairman of both the party’s political training department and the department of policy planning and coordination. He is, besides, a well-known political columnist and has written several books, including Pakistan Papers and Remembering Rajiv, as also edited a four-volume publication, Rajiv Gandhi’s India.
He is married, and has three grown-up daughters. His special interests include grassroots democracy, Indian foreign policy—particularly with India's neighborhood countries and West Asia—and nuclear disarmament.
External links
- Article in Economic Times about him dated May 23, 2004.
- Information as a member of 14th Lok Sabha on website of Lok Sabha
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