Rahul Gandhi addresing a public rally in Kozhikode.
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday evening sent his 'wishes' to the Narendra Modi government on its first year in office wrapped in sarcasm.
"On behalf of the Congress party, I would like to officially wish the 'suit-boot sarkar' a happy birthday," Mr Gandhi said at a public rally in Kerala's Kozhikode. He then launched an attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi centred around the 'name-striped' suit he had worn in January this year, when US President Barack Obama visited India.
Mr Gandhi said he apologised for breaking his promise to BJP lawmakers that he would not bring up the suit again. "But with their permission I would like to use it in this speech," Mr Gandhi told the crowd with the aid of a translator.
"The first reason for this government being a 'suit-boot sarkar' is our PM's fascination for clothes. He has been called a fashion icon and I think that's a good thing. What many people did not like was that, for possibly the first time, a PM wore a suit worth 10 lakh rupees," Mr Gandhi said.
The suit, he alleged, "showed a certain insensitivity towards the poor people of this country," and added, "People genuinely felt uncomfortable that here is a country where people are working day in day out on MNREGA and the PM wears such a suit."
The Congress leader also attacked the PM again for his foreign visits and on the government's land reforms, which he alleges are anti-farmer and anti-poor.
At a mega rally in Uttar Pradesh yesterday, the Prime Minister asserted that his government is focused on the poor and the underprivileged, hitting back at the Congress and Mr Gandhi. The rally was the first in a series of outreach programmes that the BJP has planned to celebrate its government's one year at the Centre.
Through the day today, the BJP's A team has attacked the Congress, comparing the Modi government's one year to a decade of the Congress-led UPA's rule before that.