Mani Shankar Aiyar takes another dig at Games

Nominated Rajya Sabha MP Mani Shankar Aiyar took a potshot on Saturday at the coming Delhi Commonwealth Games, saying arrangements were being made to ensure that the 100,000 foreign guests expected to come were not mobbed by beggars and the poor.

He was addressing a seminar on the "Role of Media in the 21st century and India's Image" in the capital.

"In a globalised India, the English media feels prosperous and wants to carry India forward. Nearly 100,000 foreign guests will come to India in less then two months (for the Commonwealth Games). I hear that 70,000 have confirmed their bookings. Special arrangements are being made to ensure that they are not besieged by beggars and the poor, but interact with men attired only in coats and ties," he said.

"On their way to the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium, they (the foreign visitors) should not chance upon those begging for livelihood at shrine of (Sufi saint) Nizamuddin Auliya," Aiyar said, adding the "economic imbalance between the citizens and consumers is glaring".

The question is “whether Indians should be made prosperous or India should made richer," Aiyar said.