Slamming suspended Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar for his 'neech aadmi' remarks aimed at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Rajya Sabha MP Amar Singh today referred to an incident that happened 17 years ago.

Referring to the incident, Amar Singh said, "Gujral saab ke niwaas par ek bhoj tha; madhyapaan karke, nashe mein choor madmast aadhe ghante itni kroor baatein wo kar rahe the ki humari aur unki ek etihaisik jhadap hui (A dinner was hosted at Satish Gujral's residence in New Delhi. After getting excessively drunk, he was saying such cruel things that there was a historic brawl between us)."

"Aur us jhadap ne poore rashtra mein itni prasiddhi paayi ki jab Mani Shankar Aiyar sansad ke praangan mein kisi ko beizzat karne khade hote the toh BJP ke sadasya kehte the 'Mani beth ja nahin to Amar Singh aajayga' (That brawl was talked about everywhere in the country and it came to a situation where if Mani Shankar Aiyar stood to insult someone in the Parliament Complex, the BJP members would say, 'sit down Mani else Amar Singh will come')," Amar Singh said.

WHAT HAD HAPPENED 17 YEARS AGO?

The incident took place in November 2000 at a dinner party hosted by Satish Gujraral (brother of former Prime Minister IK Gujral). Amar Singh and Mani Shankar Aiyar had landed punches on one another while the national capital's glitterati stood witness.

The dinner party had been hosted in the honour of HK Dua, former media advisor to prime ministers Atal Bihari Vajpayee and HD Deve Gowda.

In an interview Amar Singh had later said that Mani Shankar Aiyar came up to him fully drunk and accused him of being a racist. Mani Shankar Aiyar allegedly accused Amar Singh of preventing Sonia Gandhi from becoming the prime minister owing to her foreign origin.

Mani Shankar Aiyar did not stop at that. He went on to call Amar Singh a "political weather cock". Amar Singh retorted by accusing Mani Shankar Aiyar of shifting sides - from Sonia to Mamata Banerjee and back.

ABUSES FLEW THICK AND FAST

In the heated exchange with all those matter being witness, Mani Shankar Aiyar allegedly called Amar Singh "a broker of industrialists" and "Ambani's dog".

Amar Singh reportedly told Mani Shankar Aiyar that "it is not you but your wine is talking". But, Mani Shankar Aiyar would not relent. He challenged Amar Singh with words like "What sort of a Thakur are you?''

When Amar Singh, as he has claimed, remained unprovoked Mani Shankar Aiyar hurled expletives at the then SP leader, who was with the then SP president Mulayam Singh Yadav in the party.

THE SHOWDOWN

Mani Shankar Aiyar then trained his guns at Mulayam Singh and told Amar Singh: We are from the Oxford and Cambridge while your leader can't even speak English...Mulayam looks just like me. It could be because my father visited UP some time. Why don't you ask Mulayam's mother?"

Amar Singh was the most trusted lieutenant of Mulayam Singh then and was the most potent voice after the former SP president in the party. Amar Singh still confesses that he holds Mulayam Singh in high esteem. Mani Shankar Aiyar had just hurt the collective ego of Amar Singh and Mulayam Singh.

This proved to be the final trigger point after which Amar Singh pushed Mani Shankar Aiyar and pinned him onto the floor and beat him up.

An elite galaxy of powers that be was witness to the desi fight between two top leaders of the country. Mani Shankar Aiyar ended up having few bruises on his face and body. Amar Singh today reminded Mani Shankar Aiyar of the incident again.