Congress suspended Mani Shankar Aiyar as it wanted to get rid of him: Uma Bharti

MATHURA: Union Minister Uma Bharti said the Congress suspended Mani Shankar Aiyar after his controversial remark against Prime Minister Narendra Modi just to get rid of him as he had become a burden on the party.

Talking to reporters in Vrindavan last evening, she said, the Congress was looking for a way to get rid of Aiyar.

"It (the Congress) found an easy way to expel Aiyar after his utterances against Prime Minister Modi," the minister for Drinking Water and Sanitation said.

The Congress on December 7 suspended Aiyar from the primary membership of the party and issued him a show cause notice after he called the prime minister a "neech kism ka aadmi" (vile sort of man).

Bharti said, if the Congress really practices ethics, it should first expel its president Sonia Gandhi for her remarks against Modi. "During the Lok Sabha elections in 2014, Sonia had allegedly termed Modi as 'Maut Ka Saudagar'," she said.

On cleaning of rivers, she said lack of coordination among officers has hampered the work.

Earlier, she paid a visit to Saint Vijay Kaushal Maharaj in Nikunj Van Ashram, Vrindavan.

She also patted the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh saying there has been a significant improvement in law and order in the state under the Yogi Adityanath dispensation.

She parried questions on her possible return to state politics as she expressed her commitment for the cleanliness of rivers.