PM Modi's big welcome at Allphones Arena at Sydney's Olympic Park on Monday
Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today hit out at the Congress for suggesting that the cheering crowds at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's foreign visits may be staged.
"If UPA leaders, during their days in Government, left the expatriate Indian population underwhelmed, is it to be presumed that this should be true for others?" Mr Jaitley said in a blog.
On Sunday, Congress leader Salman Khurshid had suggested that people were taken from India to cheer and shout slogans at PM Modi's events abroad.
Mr Khurshid referenced the Prime Minister's address to the Indian diaspora in Nay Pyi Taw three days ago and questioned how a crowd of 20,000 people gathered at the Myanmarese capital where streets are generally empty.
Describing it as a "fascinating claim", Mr Jaitley shot back, without taking names: "I can understand the plight of Salman and his party colleagues particularly when Prime Minister Narendra Modi gets a larger crowd in Sydney than what Salman's leader gets in India."
Mr Modi is on a three-nation tour of Myanmar, Australia and Fiji. He addressed some 16,000 Indians today at the Allphones Arena at Sydney's Olympic Park in an event that has been compared to his "rock star welcome" at New York's Madison Square Garden in September.
Mr Khurshid had also scoffed at the Madison Square Garden event, saying, "In USA, organising 20,000 people and making them shout slogans is not a big deal."