Congress hits back after BJP points out Rahul Gandhi's imported t shirt

Fiery exchanges took place between BJP and Congress on Friday, after the former took to task Rahul Gandhi over one of his expensive t-shirts earlier in the day. Following a tweet titled "Bharat, Dekho" featuring Gandhi in the t-shirt, Congress MP and party leader Jairam Ramesh reminded the other side of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "Rs 10 lakh suit and Rs 1.5 lakh sunglasses", adding that latter articles too needed to be discussed, writes ETV Bharat's Amit Agnihotri.

New Delhi: The Congress and the BJP on Friday indulged in a verbal spat over an expensive T Shirt that Rahul Gandhi wore in the morning. After the BJP tweeted a picture of Rahul wearing a white Burberry T Shirt which reportedly costs Rs 41,000 along with a caption, “Bharat, Dekho”, in a swipe at the Congress leader’s ongoing Bharat Jodo Yatra, party leader Jairam Ramesh hit back at the saffron party.

“Are you nervous after seeing the massive crowds in the Bharat Jodo yatra. Why don’t you talk on issues like price rise and unemployment,” Ramesh tweeted. “If you want to discuss clothes, then Modiji’s Rs 10 lakh worth suit and Rs 1.5 lakh sunglasses would also be discussed,” he said.

The yatra was launched on September 7 amid massive support from the locals of Kanyakumari. The BJP tweet came shortly after Rahul slammed the ruling party saying it was dividing people along religious and caste lines while ignoring problems like price rise and unemployment.

Earlier, the controversy over Rs 10 lakh suit bearing his name had erupted when PM Modi had put it on while welcoming then US President Barack Obama in 2015. After that, the Congress had coined the phrase “suit boot ki Sarkar” to take a dig at the PM’s expensive suit and his alleged inclination towards some select big corporates.

The charge had made the BJP uneasy. Later, Congress had taken a dig at expensive sunglasses that the PM often wears. Over the past years, Rahul had been targeting the PM saying he favoured the rich and ignored the poor.

Rahul Gandhi had been raising concerns over a particular corporate group, close to the PM, having increased its wealth dramatically over the past years. On Friday, he clarified that he was not against corporates but only against extreme monopolies.

He said if Congress came back to power its focus would be to ensure a fair system, in which the corporates would not be able to harm the interests of the farmers. The BJP, he alleged, faced a bankruptcy of ideas for the future and therefore delved into the past to bring up issues.

“It is okay if you want to change names but talking about the past will not give solutions to the problems of the future,” he said when asked about the recent renaming of Rajpath as Kartavya Path.