Aiyar was delivering a lecture on 'The dilemma of development and democracy in India' at a programme organised in New Delhi.
Senior Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar today seemed to equate Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi with Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, suggesting that the unemployed poor were unleashed on "demonised" minority in 2002 Gujarat riots.
"Indeed, even the concept of a single national poverty line is ethically, politically and economically flawed for not recognising either the various components of multiple, multi-dimensional deprivation... or the various categories of poverty ranging from chronic poor to severely poor...
"To which I would add the transient poor as distinct from perennial poor, by which I mean those thrown out of employment after years of holding a steady job who tend to become, as in Gujarat 2002, the vanguard of the angry proletariat mobilised against a demonised minority -- pace Hitler and the chief minister of Gujarat," he said.
Aiyar was delivering a lecture on 'The dilemma of development and democracy in India' at a programme organised in New Delhi.
The Congress leader said that democracy is "tripping" development in India and its "most acute manifestation" is Naxalite violence and its most familiar form is the "peculiar Indian experience" of incumbency.
"Tribals in central India are now saying, we do not want development, for development is not desirable, it is only disruptive," he underlined.
Consequently, at least 158 districts are "partially or entirely" convulsed in Naxalite violence of which about 35 districts have so far "spun" out of the government control and have "virtually" become fiefdom of the insurgents, he claimed.
"History would advise us to not to be complacent as our GDP growth rates rise towards double digit figures in the sixth decade of our industrial revolution," he said.
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