'Mela' is circus, not party, clarifies Mani Shankar Aiyar

New Delhi:  Congress MP Mani Shankar Aiyar today said it was not the party but the "mela" at its headquarters that he had described as a "circus" and hoped that it has not lost its capacity to laugh at itself.

"It was not the party but the mela at 24, Akbar Road (Congress headquarters) that I had described as a circus," he said referring to reports in this regard on a speech he made at a book release function.

As for party leader Satyavrat Chaturvedi's "pertinent question", he said, "I am neither the joker nor the trapeze artiste at the circus but the caged lion."

He said former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi used to laugh uproariously at these jokes and expressed hope that he "trusts the Congress has not lost its capacity to laugh at itself".

At the function, he had said, "those who have got their work done visit 10, Janpath (Congress President Sonia Gandhi's residence), while those with some hope of getting their work done visit 23, Willingdon Crescent (Congress chief's Political SecretaryAhmed Patel's residence)."

"Those who have lost all the hope and are dejected come to 24, Akbar Road," he had said.

"Such people who have lost hope come here with the belief that meeting up people who have a table and a chair (a party post) would help them, but little do they know that of the 10 people sitting inside five are trying to reach some higher post themselves while five others are in a downward spiral," he said.

"Sometimes people taste success, sometimes they fail. This is kind of a fair (mela) and every Congressman has to join this circus," Aiyar said.