Mani Shankar Aiyar says 'attempt to conduct Ram temple ceremony will hurt PM Modi'
India TV NewsFormer Union Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar said that PM Modi's attempt to 'personally conduct the consecration ceremony' at the Ram temple in Ayodhya will prove costly especially after the four shankaracharyas refused to attend the ceremony. Discussing his latest book, "The Rajiv I knew and Why he was India's most misunderstood Prime Minister", the 82-year-old talked about how almost every charge made against the former PM was without basis in truth – including the Bofors scam. Aiyar, who served as a joint secretary in Rajiv Gandhi's prime minister's office and was his senior at Doon School and Cambridge, blamed the media for the Bofors story arguing that it was a "complete lie" from beginning to end, with even the high court of India stating that there was not a "scintilla of evidence" against him. Historian William Dalrymple, Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi, actor Prakash Raj, American physician-author Abraham Verghese, award-winning author Perumal Murugan and comedian Kanan Gill are among the 400 noted personalities attending the Kerala Literature Festival.