Addressing the Khushwant Singh Literary Festival 2025, Aiyar drew sharp contrasts between Rajiv Gandhi's political choices and the policies of the current administration, which he accused of neglecting India's geographic and social peripheries.
Congress MP P Chidambaram criticised the Operation Blue Star under the Indira Gandhi-led government in 1984, terming it "wrong", and said that the former Prime Minister paid with her life for the "mistake".