New Delhi, Feb. 1 (TNS): India’s ruling party BJP took on Congress president Rahul Gandhi over his attire at a concert in Shillong, with a ‘soot boot’ jibe reminiscent of Gandhi’s own criticism of prime minister Narendra Modi in 2015 for wearing an expensive suit
The Meghalaya BJP in a tweet tagging Gandhi’s official handle compared his jacket to a Burberry one that costs $995, or roughly Rs 63,400.
The Congress on Wednesday laughed off the BJP’s jibe over an alleged Rs 63,000 jacket worn by party president Rahul Gandhi at the concert.
“I don’t know whether to laugh or to cry on the desperation of the BJP. Are you saying they have no other work than to sit and search rates? I can show you the same jacket for Rs 700, ” Congress’ Renuka Chowdhury told news agency ANI.
The BJP’s potshot comes in retaliation to Gandhi’s “suit boot” jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a poll campaign in Bihar in 2015.
“While the Mahatma shed his suit and donned a dhoti as he led the poor farmers, Modi who claimed to have started as a chaiwala (tea seller) started wearing Rs 15 lakh suit after becoming Prime Minister,” Gandhi had said at a rally in West Champaran.
The suit referred to by Gandhi in his poll speech is a monogrammed suit donned by Modi during his 2015 meeting with then US President Barack Obama in India. The suit, which was sold at an auction for Rs 4.31 crore, has stripes with the name Narendra Damodardas Modi woven into it in glittering gold letters.
Attacking Modi, Chowdhury said,”Those who wove (their) own name on suit, do they have any moral authority to question Rahul Gandhi’s jacket? How do they know rate of the jacket?
Gandhi, who is on a campaign tour of Meghalaya that goes to polls on February 27, was seen wearing the jacket on Tuesday at a musical evening “Celebration of Peace”.
